On the night of June 29–30, 1991, Estrellita Vizconde, 49, her daughter Carmela, 19, and her seven-year-old daughter were killed at the family's residence in BF Homes, Paranaque, Metro Manila. All three suffered fatal stab wounds, and Carmela was sexually assaulted. Lauro Vizconde, Estrellita's husband and the father of the two daughters, was in the United States on business at the time.
The case remained unresolved for nearly four years. An early investigation focused on members of an alleged burglary group, but those defendants said they had been coerced into confessing and were acquitted by a trial court in September 1993 for insufficient evidence.
In 1995, prosecutors charged Hubert Webb and several co-defendants, relying heavily on testimony from a purported eyewitness. Webb denied the charges and maintained that he had been in the United States from March 1991 to October 1992. Trial proceedings began in August 1995.
On January 6, 2000, the Paranaque Regional Trial Court convicted Webb, Peter Estrada, Hospicio Fernandez, Michael Gatchalian, Antonio Lejano, and Miguel Rodriguez of rape with homicide. Gerardo Biong was convicted as an accessory for evidence tampering. Joey Filart and Artemio Ventura were convicted in absentia and remained at large. The Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions in December 2005.
On December 14, 2010, the Supreme Court reversed the lower-court judgment and acquitted Webb, Lejano, Gatchalian, Fernandez, Rodriguez, Estrada, and Biong because the prosecution had failed to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt. The Court found the principal testimony unreliable and concluded that the defense evidence raised reasonable doubt. Filart and Ventura were not appellants before the Court, so their in-absentia convictions were not altered by that decision.
Following the acquittals, the cited authoritative sources do not establish who committed the killings. The case therefore remains unresolved, and no allegation against an acquitted defendant should be presented as evidence of guilt.
Credit: JidanniCC BY-SA 4.0SourceSOLVEDListen
