MANILA, Philippines?The Supreme Court has chided Lauro Vizconde and fined an anti-crime crusader for putting the high court in a bad light following its decision to acquit those convicted in the sensational Vizconde massacre case.

Court Spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said Vizconde was strongly admonished after he accused the justices of being bribed to acquit Hubert Webb, Antonio Lejano, Michael Gatchalian, Hospicio Fernandez, Miguel Rodriguez, Peter Estrada, and Gerardo Biong.

Dante Jimenez, founding chairman of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), was slapped with a fine for ?badmouthing? the high tribunal.

Jimenez refused to apologize for saying offensive words against the court justices, saying those were just an emotional outburst and done without malice.

Lawyer Ferdinand Topacio was meanwhile given 10 days to explain why he should not be cited in contempt.

Topacio alleged that Associate Justice Antonio Carpio lobbied his associates to acquit Webb and the other convicts. Carpio was among those who testified for Webb during when he was being tried in the lower court in the 1990s.

The Supreme Court on December 14 acquitted Webb and the six others found by the lower courts guilty of slaying the family of Vizconde on June 30, 1991. Vizconde appealed the ruling but the high tribunal, in a final decision, threw out the motion on January 18.