The Vizconde Massacre looks like it's going to be in those cases, still Case Unclosed. Back in the 1990s, the Vizconde Massacre was one of the cases I heard while growing up. I once believed that Hubert Jeffry P. Webb was guilty. I actually wanted to see the man get the death penalty. What shocked me was that after many years, Hubert, along with Francisco Juan "Paco" G. Larrañaga, were both innocent of the crimes they were accused of! Since the crime happened in 1991, and the trial only began in 1995. Right now, it turns out that Jessica Alfaro, the "star witness" is living somewhere in Canada. The rumors of the Chiong Sisters living in Canada can't be proven. However, it's proven that Jessica is living in Canada.
From the Asian Human Rights Commission, here's a summary of the Vizconde Case. Since I'm not writing this as a book report in middle school or high school, I'll paste the summary here:
VIZCONDE MASSACRE CASE: This case is about the gang rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman, the murder of her 7-year-old sister and their mother on June 30, 1991 at their home in Paranaque City, Metro Manila. This is one of the most controversial and widely publicised massacre cases because of the involvement of the son of a former Philippine Senator, Freddie Webb; and six others from a wealthy family background similar to that of the accused.
Webb’s son, Hubert Jeffrey, is also the brother of a television host, Pinky, in one of the largest television networks in the country. Webb’s co-accused, Antonio Lejano, is a son of a known singer and celebrity. The other accused were Artemio “Dong” Ventura, Michael A. Gatchalian, Hospicio “Pyke” Fernandez, Peter Estrada, Miguel “Ging” Rodriguez, and Joey Filart. A police officer, Gerardo Biong, has also been charged for destroying the evidence at the crime scene.
The prosecution of this case only began in August 10, 1995, four years after the massacre happened, when Jessica Alfaro, an informant working for the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), told lawyer Artemio Sacaguing, an official of the NBI, that “she knew someone who had the real story behind the Vizconde massacre”. When she could not produce the person, Sacaguing continued to press her saying that “she might as well assume the role of her informant.”
Acting solely on Alfaro’s testimony, the Department of Justice (DoJ) filed charges of rape with homicide against the eight accused on August 1995. The DoJ also placed Alfaro under the Witness Protection Program (WPP) during the trial period. The NBI is the agency responsible in providing security and protection of witnesses admitted under WPP. The NBI is a special investigating body attached to the DoJ.
On January 4, 2000, the Regional Trial Court of Paranaque City rendered its judgement “finding all the accused guilty as charged” imposing a penalty of life imprisonment. When the accused appealed the decision, the Court of Appeals (CA) affirmed the judgement of conviction by the RTC. On April this year, the Webbs filed an “urgent motion to acquit” when they found out that the NBI “no longer has custody of the specimen” that was taken from the body of the rape victim, Carmela Visconde.
During the trial, accused Webb made a defence of alibi claiming that he was in the United States when the massacre of the Vizcondes happened. To support this, Webb presented a “Certification issued by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service” of August 31, 1995 confirming that “his entry into that country was recorded”. But both the RTC and the CA rejected his defence ruling that his “alibi cannot stand against Alfaro’s positive identification of him as the rapist and killer”.
On December 14, 2010, the SC rendered its decision on the appeals of the accused, questioning the guilty verdict by the RTC and the CA. It took the trial and appeal process in this case fifteen years. The SC acquitted all the accused, reversing and dismissing the guilty verdict of the RTC and the CA.
Now, let's examine the narrative of Jessica based on this Supreme Court document that had Hubert's acquittal, and sadly still upheld the Chiong Sisters' verdict, despite the blatant lack of evidence that was later pointed out:
Alfaro's Story
Based on the prosecution's version, culled from the decisions of the trial court and the Court of Appeals, on June 29, 1991 at around 8:30 in the evening, Jessica Alfaro drove her Mitsubishi Lancer, with boyfriend Peter Estrada as passenger, to the Ayala Alabang Commercial Center parking lot to buy shabu from Artemio "Dong" Ventura. There, Ventura introduced her to his friends: Hubert Jeffrey P. Webb, Antonio "Tony Boy" Lejano, Miguel "Ging" Rodriguez, Hospicio "Pyke" Fernandez, Michael Gatchalian, and Joey Filart. Alfaro recalled frequently seeing them at a shabu house in Parañaque in January 1991, except Ventura whom she had known earlier in December 1990.
As Alfaro smoked her shabu, Webb approached and requested her to relay a message for him to a girl, whom she later identified as Carmela Vizconde. Alfaro agreed. After using up their shabu, the group drove to Carmela's house at 80 Vinzons Street, Pitong Daan Subdivision, BF Homes, Parañaque City. Riding in her car, Alfaro and Estrada trailed Filart and Rodriguez who rode a Mazda pick-up and Webb, Lejano, Ventura, Fernandez, and Gatchalian who were on a Nissan Patrol car.
On reaching their destination, Alfaro parked her car on Vinzons Street, alighted, and approached Carmela's house. Alfaro pressed the buzzer and a woman came out. Alfaro queried her about Carmela. Alfaro had met Carmela twice before in January 1991. When Carmela came out, Alfaro gave her Webb's message that he was just around. Carmela replied, however, that she could not go out yet since she had just arrived home. She told Alfaro to return after twenty minutes. Alfaro relayed this to Webb who then told the group to drive back to the Ayala Alabang Commercial Center.
The group had another shabu session at the parking lot. After sometime, they drove back but only Alfaro proceeded to Vinzons Street where Carmela lived. The Nissan Patrol and the Mazda pick-up, with their passengers, parked somewhere along Aguirre Avenue. Carmela was at their garden. She approached Alfaro on seeing her and told the latter that she (Carmela) had to leave the house for a while. Carmela requested Alfaro to return before midnight and she would leave the pedestrian gate, the iron grills that led to the kitchen, and the kitchen door unlocked. Carmela also told Alfaro to blink her car's headlights twice when she approached the pedestrian gate so Carmela would know that she had arrived.
Alfaro returned to her car but waited for Carmela to drive out of the house in her own car. Alfaro trailed Carmela up to Aguirre Avenue where she dropped off a man whom Alfaro believed was Carmela's boyfriend. Alfaro looked for her group, found them, and relayed Carmela's instructions to Webb. They then all went back to the Ayala Alabang Commercial Center. At the parking lot, Alfaro told the group about her talk with Carmela. When she told Webb of Carmela's male companion, Webb's mood changed for the rest of the evening ("bad trip").
Webb gave out free cocaine. They all used it and some shabu, too. After about 40 to 45 minutes, Webb decided that it was time for them to leave. He said, "Pipilahan natin siya [Carmela] at ako ang mauuna." Lejano said, "Ako ang susunod" and the others responded "Okay, okay." They all left the parking lot in a convoy of three vehicles and drove into Pitong Daan Subdivision for the third time. They arrived at Carmela's house shortly before midnight.
Alfaro parked her car between Vizconde's house and the next. While waiting for the others to alight from their cars, Fernandez approached Alfaro with a suggestion that they blow up the transformer near the Vizconde's residence to cause a brownout ("Pasabugin kaya natin ang transformer na ito"). But Alfaro shrugged off the idea, telling Fernandez, "Malakas lang ang tama mo." When Webb, Lejano, and Ventura were already before the house, Webb told the others again that they would line up for Carmela but he would be the first. The others replied, "O sige, dito lang kami, magbabantay lang kami."
Alfaro was the first to pass through the pedestrian gate that had been left open. Webb, Lejano, and Ventura followed her. On entering the garage, Ventura using a chair mounted the hood of the Vizcondes' Nissan Sentra and loosened the electric bulb over it ("para daw walang ilaw"). The small group went through the open iron grill gate and passed the dirty kitchen. Carmela opened the aluminum screen door of the kitchen for them. She and Webb looked each other in the eyes for a moment and, together, headed for the dining area.
As she lost sight of Carmela and Webb, Alfaro decided to go out. Lejano asked her where she was going and she replied that she was going out to smoke. As she eased her way out through the kitchen door, she saw Ventura pulling out a kitchen drawer. Alfaro smoked a cigarette at the garden. After about twenty minutes, she was surprised to hear a woman's voice ask, "Sino yan?" Alfaro immediately walked out of the garden to her car. She found her other companions milling around it. Estrada who sat in the car asked her, "Okay ba?"
After sitting in the car for about ten minutes, Alfaro returned to the Vizconde house, using the same route. The interior of the house was dark but some light filtered in from outside. In the kitchen, Alfaro saw Ventura searching a lady's bag that lay on the dining table. When she asked him what he was looking for, he said: "Ikaw na nga dito, maghanap ka ng susi." She asked him what key he wanted and he replied: "Basta maghanap ka ng susi ng main door pati na rin ng susi ng kotse." When she found a bunch of keys in the bag, she tried them on the main door but none fitted the lock. She also did not find the car key.
Unable to open the main door, Alfaro returned to the kitchen. While she was at a spot leading to the dining area, she heard a static noise (like a television that remained on after the station had signed off). Out of curiosity, she approached the master's bedroom from where the noise came, opened the door a little, and peeked inside. The unusual sound grew even louder. As she walked in, she saw Webb on top of Carmela while she lay with her back on the floor. Two bloodied bodies lay on the bed. Lejano was at the foot of the bed about to wear his jacket. Carmela was gagged, moaning, and in tears while Webb raped her, his bare buttocks exposed.
Webb gave Alfaro a meaningful look and she immediately left the room. She met Ventura at the dining area. He told her, "Prepare an escape. Aalis na tayo." Shocked with what she saw, Alfaro rushed out of the house to the others who were either sitting in her car or milling on the sidewalk. She entered her car and turned on the engine but she did not know where to go. Webb, Lejano, and Ventura came out of the house just then. Webb suddenly picked up a stone and threw it at the main door, breaking its glass frame.
As the three men approached the pedestrian gate, Webb told Ventura that he forgot his jacket in the house. But Ventura told him that they could not get in anymore as the iron grills had already locked. They all rode in their cars and drove away until they reached Aguirre Avenue. As they got near an old hotel at the Tropical Palace area, Alfaro noticed the Nissan Patrol slow down. Someone threw something out of the car into the cogonal area.
The convoy of cars went to a large house with high walls, concrete fence, steel gate, and a long driveway at BF Executive Village. They entered the compound and gathered at the lawn where the "blaming session" took place. It was here that Alfaro and those who remained outside the Vizconde house learned of what happened. The first to be killed was Carmela's mother, then Jennifer, and finally, Carmella. Ventura blamed Webb, telling him, "Bakit naman pati yung bata?" Webb replied that the girl woke up and on seeing him molesting Carmela, she jumped on him, bit his shoulders, and pulled his hair. Webb got mad, grabbed the girl, pushed her to the wall, and repeatedly stabbed her. Lejano excused himself at this point to use the telephone in the house. Meanwhile, Webb called up someone on his cellular phone.
At around 2:00 in the morning, accused Gerardo Biong arrived. Webb ordered him to go and clean up the Vizconde house and said to him, "Pera lang ang katapat nyan." Biong answered, "Okay lang." Webb spoke to his companions and told them, "We don't know each other. We haven't seen each other...baka maulit yan." Alfaro and Estrada left and they drove to her father's house.[12]
The whole narrative leads to a very B-Movie plot to explain how the bloody massacre happened. If we think about it:
- A convoy of cars entering BF Executive Homes is a blunder that would've gotten everyone detected.
- If everyone, including Jessica, were under the influence of drugs, how can she even recall very precise details in her story such as the 40-45 minute time mark?
- Even more, shabu and cocaine dull the senses, which makes you think that driving under its influence could've already killed everyone allegedly involved in a car crash.
The bare truth that needed to come out
Instead of watching those movies about the Vizconde Massacre, it would be better to watch the video above on YouTube. Some of the key people here are the late Atty. Rene Saguisag. Former Justice Secretary Atty. Vitaliano N. Aguirre II was also part of Hubert's legal counsel. Aguirre walked out in frustration. At first, I thought it was because he was being disrespectful to court proceedings. It's because Aguirre got controversial when he covered his ears when the late Miriam Defensor Santiago berated the prosecution panel during the late Renato Corona's impeachment. However, Aguirre knew well his client Hubert was innocent of the accused crime. As I watched the documentary, it started to raise many questions about Jessica's claims, and the claims of two former housemaids (since the other housemaids have different testimonies), and there were already documents.
This also raises the question of how reliable Jessica was anyway, after she confessed to being a drug addicti? Sure, I'm skeptical about the reliability of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, especially when it comes to the Chiong Sisters Case. However, I'll quote this excerpt from the Supreme Court itself containing the decision for Hubert's acquittal:
The paper of authors Burrus and Marks, "Testimonial Reliability of Drug Addicts,"[18] teaches:
. . . [W]here the prolonged use of drugs has impaired the witness' ability to perceive, recall or relate, impeaching testimony is uniformly sustained by the courts. Aside from organic deterioration, however, testimony may be impugned if the witness was under the influence of drugs at the time of perceiving the event about which he is testifying or at the time he is on the stand. This necessarily follows, for even the temporary presence of drugs affects the functioning of the body's organs, and thus bears directly on the credibility of the witness' testimony...[19] (underscoring supplied)
Evidence derived from the testimony of a witness who was under the influence of drugs during the incident to which he is testifying is indeed very unreliable.[20] So it has been held that "habitual users of narcotics become notorious liars and that their testimony is likely to be affected thereby."[21]
We believe it will be admitted that habitual users of opium, or other like narcotics, become notorious liars. The habit of lying comes doubtless from the fact that the users of those narcotics pass the greater part of their lives in an unreal world, and thus become unable to distinguish between images and facts, between illusions and realities.[22] (underscoring supplied)
This also reminds me of the Chiong Sisters' Case's "star witness," Davidson V. Rusia (read here). If David was truly under the influence of drugs and alcohol and the crime happened--it doesn't only put the claims against Francisco Juan "Paco" G. Larrañaga to the test. It also puts David's testimony to the test. In Give Up Tomorrow, it was questioned why David was even allowed to testify when drug addicts don't make good witnesses. The acquittal of Hubert et al but not Paco et al can be rather suspicious. Was it because the chief justice at that time, Atty. Hilario G. Davide, was related by marriage to Thelma Jimenea-Chiong? Hubert's acquittal in court was some time after the Chiong Sisters Case happened. What can't be denied is that we can't rely on the testimony of an addict, even a self-confessed one. Was a drug test and other forms of tests done on Jessica at that time? That's another thing worth asking.
I don't blame the Vizcondes for believing this woman. After all, the relatives wanted closure over what happened. I would definitely be outraged if what happened to the Vizcondes happened to me. However, the emergence of Jessica only gave false hope to the victims' relatives. One must wonder that, after more than 30 years, where are the real murderers of the three females? Why does Jessica still stand by her "testimony" after all these years? It might be because she was paid a huge reward for it. Maybe Jessica is enjoying life in Canada without any remorse whatsoever.
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