What’s Secretary De Lima up to?

IF JUSTICE Secretary Leila de Lima thinks she has done justice to the Vizconde rape/murder case, she is absolutely wrong. She only muddled the case and turned it into a political football.

Granted, for the sake of argument, that Hubert Webb never left the country, the fact is he was acquitted of the crime not because he was in the United States (as he vehemently claimed), but primarily because the Supreme Court found that the testimony of perjured witness Jessica Alfaro seriously lacked credibility.  The six new witnesses presented by De Lima did not prove Webb raped and murdered the victims as claimed by witness Alfaro. They merely said Webb was in the country, and already De Lima sounded proudly triumphant for breaking Webb’s alibi.

Now, wittingly or unwittingly, De Lima admits the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) failed to place Webb, as well as witness Alfaro, at the scene of the crime. De Lima might not have realized it but she, in effect,  vindicated the Supreme Court for having serious doubts about Alfaro’s testimony—because how could Alfaro have witnessed the crime when she was not at the scene, as confirmed by De Lima? Was it not Alfaro, the NBI’s star witness, who said she saw Webb raping the victim? Also, De Lima cannot claim that the magnetic tape recorder is proof that Webb never left the country (as also claimed by six new witnesses), unless the integrity of that machine is put to the test and those witnesses are cross-examined in court.

Lastly, if the NBI lost its credibility for manipulating/planting witness Alfaro, why should it be credible now with its six new witnesses?  Is the NBI trying to make another cover-up to save face?  The problem with the NBI is it has a history of flawed investigations, like the crude way its previous investigation into the case was done. And how can it say the new witnesses are telling the truth without them taking the witness stand and undergoing cross-examination?

Unfortunately, all this exercise is for nothing because it failed to prove Webb is guilty beyond reasonable doubt.  It only strengthened the Supreme Court decision acquitting Webb. What De Lima tried to convey to us was the false perception that Webb must be guilty because, according to her, he never left the country. If that’s De Lima’s new code of justice then the Aquino administration has a serious problem with the Department of Justice. The only thing the De Lima investigation succeeded in doing was to make the Supreme Court look bad to some people for acquitting Webb, put the Webbs in eternal damnation, never mind that Webb had served 15 years in jail, and give poor Mang Lauro more sleepless nights by keeping his false hopes alive and by messing up the already muddled case.

—CESAR M. DE LOS REYES, [email protected]