Manila. Dec. 14, 2010. Hubert Webb, one of six young men convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1991 killings of a mother and her two daughters, was released after 15 years in jail at the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa, Philippines. The Supreme Court acquitted Hubert Webb, son of former Senator Freddie Webb, and five others saying the prosecutors failed to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
The Vizconde Massacre caught the nation’s attention not only because of the gruesome killings of the three women but also the involvement of the scion of the country’s wealthy families.
A former official of the US Embassy in Manila has backed Hubert Webb’s claim that he was in the US when three members of the Vizconde family were killed inside their Parañaque home in June 1991.
In a report in GMA News’ “24 Oras,” Robert Heafner, former legal attaché of the US Embassy, said he helped in the investigation on the Vizconde case after talking with then National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) director Alfredo Lim.
“I was able to verify that Hubert Webb did arrive in the US through his US immigration record and separately through his US custom record and thirdly through his California driver’s license that had his photo and thumbprint on it,” Heafner said.
The defence during the trial said that the son of former Senator Freddie Webb couldn’t have committed the crime because he was in the US from March 1991 to October 1992. The killings happened in June 1991.
The Parañaque Regional Trial Court, however, dismissed this alibi and convicted Webb and nine others in October 2000 for the killings of Estrellita Vizconde and her daughters Carmela and Jennifer on June 30, 1991.