Lauro Vizconde has decided to appear in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona to discuss the details of a private meeting with him in September 2010.
Vizconde, 74, said that during this meeting Corona told him about the alleged efforts of Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio to pressure (binabraso) colleagues to vote for the acquittal of Hubert Webb, son of former Senator Freddie Webb.
The younger Webb had spent 15 years in prison awaiting the final ruling of the high tribunal in connection with the rape of Vizconde’s daughter, Carmela, who was later murdered, along with her younger sister and mother in their Parañaque City home on July 31, 1991, in which he was the principal accused.
Vizconde said he had spent the past two weeks agonizing on whether to testify against Corona whose revelation to him in that private meeting was cited as one of the grounds in Article 3 of the impeachment complaint against the chief magistrate for betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution.
Prosecutors said the disclosure constituted a “serious breach of the rule of confidentiality” on cases pending in the high tribunal.
“I really don’t want to testify because of utang na loob (debt of gratitude) because the Chief Justice had accommodated me in that meeting,” Vizconde said in an interview.
“But then I thought, one of the advocacies of the (Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption) is to seek reforms in the justice system which is the bottom line of this trial. I cannot sacrifice the favor that the Chief Justice did for me in exchange for our advocacy,” he explained.
“All the while, I thought that when the Chief Justice informed me of what Carpio was doing, that he would investigate all those incidents of parties lobbying for their cases in the Supreme Court. I thought he would resolve that problem, not only in my case, but in other cases as well,” he said in Filipino.
Vizconde revealed details of his meeting with Corona to the Philippine Daily Inquirer a month after the Supreme Court acquitted Webb and his coaccused on Dec. 14, 2010.
Lauro Vizconde. LYN RILLON
The Parañaque Regional Trial Court convicted the group in January 2000. The Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction in 2006. The case was elevated to the Supreme Court, where it lingered for four years.
Vizconde said that “sometime” in September 2010, he and VACC founding chairman Dante Jimenez paid a courtesy call on Corona to congratulate him on his appointment as Chief Justice.
Shocked and surprised
Corona’s office was undergoing renovation at that time and the Chief Justice had apologized for receiving them in his old chamber, he said.
“During the course of the conversation, I could not resist, as an aggrieved father and husband, to ask the Chief Justice about the status of the case against Hubert Webb and other accused,” Vizconde said in an affidavit to the Supreme Court which had chastised him after the Inquirer reported on the meeting.
Corona reportedly told Vizconde and Jimenez to expect a decision in three to four months.
“But I was shocked and surprised when the Chief Justice, to the best of my recollection, said the following words: ‘Talagang binabraso at iniimpluwensyahan ni Carpio ang kanyang mga kasama para mapawalang-sala si Webb,’ or words to that effect,” the widower’s affidavit read. Translated: Carpio is resorting to arm-twisting to influence his colleagues to acquit Webb.
The Supreme Court later voted 7-4 to acquit Webb and his co-accused, citing the “failure of the prosecution to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.”
The decision was penned by Associate Justice Roberto Abad and concurred in by Senior Associate Justice Conchita Carpio Morales and Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Jose Perez, Jose Catral Mendoza and Ma. Lourdes Sereno.
Those who dissented were Corona and Associate Justices Martin Villarama, Teresita Leonardo-de Castro and Arturo Brion.
Carpio, who testified in Webb’s trial, did not participate in the deliberations.
Senior Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr., a distant relative of a party to the case, was on official leave.
Prosecutors get ‘good news’
Representatives Sherwin Tugna and Arlene Bag-ao, both members of the House prosecution team, visited Vizconde on Sunday to convince the widower to testify.
On Monday afternoon, Tugna returned for a second visit and was greeted with the good news of Vizconde’s decision.
During an hourlong conversation with relatives present, Vizconde repeated to Tugna several times his concern about being viewed as an ingrate by Corona.
“Mr. Vizconde stressed again and again that he would be doing this for a higher reason, that of judicial reform. His concern is being perceived adversely,” Tugna said in an ambush interview.
Vizconde said the chance to give a public narration of the incident would at least disprove the accusation that he made up the story about the meeting with Corona.
“This is my chance to tell my story under oath in a public forum, because the Supreme Court said I was lying after the news broke out,” he said.
No favor asked
“I never asked any favor from the Chief Justice. I just asked him when the decision would come out because it had been dragging in the SC for years, can you imagine? The conviction was affirmed by the Court of Appeals in 2006 and dragged on without any major resolution,” he complained.
House prosecutors have listed the Corona-Vizconde meeting among the offenses Corona allegedly committed under Article 3 of the impeachment complaint against Corona.
Prosecutors said Article III Section 7 of the Constitution provides that “a member of the judiciary must be a person of proven competence, integrity, probity and independence.”
They explained that Corona’s discussion “with litigants regarding cases pending in the Supreme Court” constituted a violation of the Code of Conduct and the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
They also charged that the meeting constituted a culpable violation of the Constitution and should be considered as betrayal of public trust.