Vizconde Massacre Verdict

Today was a day of mourning for Lauro Vizconde, the father and only remaining survivor of the Vizconde Family Massacre. The Supreme Court reversed the lower court and Court of Appeals ruling to implicate Hubert Webb and six other accused of the gruesome murder. The reason was the prosecution failed to prove that the accused were guilty beyond reasonable doubt. The murders happened June 30, 1991 and after 19 years, Lauro Vizconde is still seeking justice for his family.

The motion for acquittal started after the Supreme Court approved a DNA testing to be performed on the semen specimen obtained during the autopsy of the victims (http://en.wikipedia.org) . Unfortunately the specimen was reported lost by the National Bureau of Investigation which prompted lawyers to submit the motion in reference that the evidence to prove that it was indeed Hubert's sperm found inside rape and murder victim Carmela Vizconde, will never be used to prove the accused innocence or guilt. The lower court and Court of Appeals decision entirely rests on Jessica Alfaro's testimony of what happened on the night of the murders. The Supreme Court cited several inconsistencies in the star witness' testimony which was the reason why they approved a DNA testing to be conducted.

Truly this is an example of a poor police system in our country. The NBI, with its belief that the case was closed after the lower court and Court of Appeals decision implicating the suspects, did not take care of vital evidence in their jurisdiction. They merely stated that the semen specimen was in the possession of the lower court which handled the case. But storage of vital crime evidences should be NBI's responsibility and not a trail court which handles hundreds of cases in a month. Because of this irresponsibility, the accused was freed and nobody will ever know the truth if Hubert Webb was indeed the one who raped and killed Carmela Vizconde. Although the Supreme Court handed out its decision, more than a million questions are left unanswered and people are thinking of who are really the people responsible for the murders.

I sympathize for Mr. Lauro Vizconde's situation and I pray that he will get his justice in due time. The Vizconde case is another example of how our justice system runs and how efficient our police force in doing their jobs. How many families will experience this kind of injustice? Will there be hope for the victims of unsolved crimes here in our country?