Supreme Court acquits Webb, et al

[dubioz]

*sigh*

Guilty or innocent, it shows how imperfect our justice system is.

If Hubert is innocent, who will make up for his lost youth? It also means innocent men do go to jail despite all the institutional safeguards against that happening.

If guilty, well... a killer has just been let loose.

Is it possible to have a people power to remove all these justices? After all the controversies, the appointment of Corona, the plagiarism is OK doctrine, and now this, they have lost the confidence of the people. Justice is now a complete joke, and the only way is to completely replace these losers!

OT: I have a different opinion of the result in the Webb case, but yes, the justices need to be completely replaced. Rather than marching in the streets, it is better that we make use of the people's initiative provisions of the constitution to do that. The problem is the JBC, it has removed the selection process from the principle of checks and balances and relies on an "apolitical non-partisan" group of people to screen applicants. Where can we get people like that? Only angels are "apoltical and non-partisan".

[Xilcher]

kung tinuod jud inosente si Webb, damage has been done... he has served a slice of his life in prison long enough... plus ang reputation pa jud niya (and his family) pwerte ng gubaa...

forensic science <-- this would've made a HUGE difference... hatagan unta nig pagtagad & budget

best reply...I've seen..

ug ngano kaha giwala sa NBI ang for DNA samples unta..

meaning ana.. hugaw jud ang NBI sa una.. ug naa sila gitaguan..
mao nag himo sila ug star witness..nga agent gihapon nila..
dakong question mark..why gibuhat to sa NBI

asa naman ta musalig ani... paeta..



(ug sa mga Against Crime Advocates.. palihug ayaw mo ka bias..ug ka OA,,sa victim..
not just bcoz victim sad mo..kasabot mi sa inyo kasakit but
mag rally na mo against SC..is something against Justice.
tan-awa sa ang facts..ug mas maayo tabang mo investigate than cge reklamo)

[wewie_12]

supreme court justices shoud have vote..naa man gud nagpang hunaw nila..f dli cla mo vote they should resign nlang...importante man gud ila judgement sa case ky isa ka vote can make a difference........

[sharkey360]

Wenceslao: Lauro Vizconde’s tragic fate

WE WERE about to leave our house to go to our offices yesterday noon when footage of a smiling Hubert Webb and Hospicio “Pyke” Fernandez were flashed on TV. My wife instinctively approached the TV set and made the motion of striking the image shown on the monitor with her folded umbrella.

The Supreme Court acquitted Webb, Fernandez and five others yesterday in connection with the Vizconde massacre, putting the blame on the prosecution for failing to “prove beyond reasonable doubt the guilt of the accused.”

So after almost two decades since the murders in 1991, we are back to square one. Or worse. If Hubert et al weren’t responsible for the brutal murders of Estrellita and daughters Carmela and Jennifer Vizconde, who were?

Listening to the TV report, I felt a surge of emotion deep within. “Adto na ta,” I told my wife. “Di ta motan-aw ana kay magsakit lang atong dughan.”

***

Lauro Vizconde was in the United States when on June 30, 1991, his wife Estrellita, 47, was stabbed 13 times, his daughter Carmela, 18, was raped and stabbed 17 times and his other daughter Jennifer, 7, was stabbed 19 times in their house in BF Homes, Parañaque.

The case became sensational partly because of Lauro’s tragic fate. It is not often that one leaves one’s home only to come back to bury the loved ones you left behind. A burst of madness by people believed to be scions of rich families had left Lauro alone to trudge onward with life.

Now an old man, he broke down when the Supreme Court verdict was handed down.

“Pinawalang sala ng mga magagaling nating justices. Dyan ko napatunayan na sa Korte Suprema ay ginagapang nga,” he said in frustration.

I don’t which is more painful, burying your murdered loved ones or being deprived of justice you rightfully deserve. Whatever. But it now looks like Lauro, with his old age and with the kind of justice system we have, will be bringing those pains to his grave.

***

Maybe Webb, Fernandez, Antonio Lejano II, Michael Gatchalian, Miguel Rodriguez and Peter Estrada, including policeman Gerardo Biong (accused of covering the tracks of Webb’s group) were actually guilty of the crime, as what a Parañaque court earlier ruled and what Lauro Vizconde believes.

Or maybe they were not, as what the high Court asserted. Or perhaps some of them are actually guilty while the rest are innocent, like some people are claiming.

All that we will never know now, and this is what makes the Vizconde case doubly tragic. That reopens old allegations about the country’s criminal justice system; that it is like a spider web that catches flies and mosquitoes but allows bigger insects to barrel through.

Which reminds me of other celebrated cases that seem to be headed the same way as that of the Vizcondes. Like, will the Bacolods ever get justice in connection with the murder of Alona, considering the status of the case against Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA) supreme master and now congressman Ruben Ecleo Jr.?

As for the Supreme Court, whose decisions in some major cases have been questioned by some sectors lately, will it ever regain the confidence the people had in it in previous times?

Questions. Questions.

Wenceslao: Lauro Vizconde?s tragic fate | Sun.Star Network Online

[cobraKing]

ngano na wala man ang ibidensya sa kaso??..kinsa man sad ang nag sorambaw ani?

[wewie_12]

justices vote 7-4-4....why in a world those 4 justices did not vote for their judgement...cguro f tanan cla ni vote na not guity i would agree to the decision..ma convince ko na innocent d i jud cla but the thing is dli man gud..mao naka bati dha..wlay au ng SC...

[sharkey360]

5,000 tweets an hour mention Webb, Vizconde

Even after two decades, the Vizconde murder case still has a tight emotional grip on Filipinos. Only this time, people took to the Internet to air their sentiments over the tragedy and the ensuing legal battle.

Minutes after the Supreme Court reversed the murder conviction of Hubert Webb and six others on December 14 and the world witnessed a weak and grieving Lauro Vizconde, Filipinos went on Twitter and aired their commiseration with Vizconde and the Webbs.

According to trend monitoring service Trendistic.com, conversations mentioning Vizconde and Hubert Webb peaked at around 3 p.m. in the Philippines. At that time, tweets mentioning either of the keywords accounted for 0.3 percent of all activity on the social networking site — approximately 5,000 tweets, based on Twitter's own traffic estimates.



Twitter has said that it receives around 50 million tweets a day, or roughly 2 million tweets an hour or 600 tweets per second. Based on this estimation, any trending topic that accounts for even just a fraction of a percent of overall traffic already amounts to thousands of unique tweets.

More at 5,000 tweets an hour mention Webb, Vizconde - Technology - GMANews.TV - Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs - Latest Philippine News

[topeh]

asa nman lang tawn ta padulong ani. wala nay klaro justice system sa pilipinas. ang SC bag-o lang gi-uli ang mansion sa mga Marcos kay kang Imelda kuno pagkaDalaga niya. unya ang Truth commision gipahunong. karon acquitted sila Webb. sunod mga Ampatuan tingali. mao ni regalo ni Gloria sa katawhan.

[wh3ng2004]

justices vote 7-4-4....why in a world those 4 justices did not vote for their judgement...cguro f tanan cla ni vote na not guity i would agree to the decision..ma convince ko na innocent d i jud cla but the thing is dli man gud..mao naka bati dha..wlay au ng SC...

unsa may labot anang 4 ka wala ni vote na justices? dapat mo pahawa nana sila sa ilang pwesto kung dili man di ai na sila kamao mo himo ug decision unsa pa may mga gamit ana nila?

[hunyanggo1977]

justices vote 7-4-4....why in a world those 4 justices did not vote for their judgement...cguro f tanan cla ni vote na not guity i would agree to the decision..ma convince ko na innocent d i jud cla but the thing is dli man gud..mao naka bati dha..wlay au ng SC...

bay, the other four justices did not vote because their vote will be interpreted as biased. its either one of them is identified with either the vizconde or webb family before they were appointed in the SC as justice.

parang ganito lang yan eh, halimbawa ikaw may family friend na judge before, then luckily he was appointed as SC justice. then time comes na you have a case that was brought to the SC for final decision, so the SC justice (who is your family friend before) will not vote else his decision will be misinterpreted by the other camp.