Vismanos family wants NBI to reinvestigate death

IT was exactly a decade ago yesterday when 26-year-old hotel coordinator Vina Carmela Vismanos was found dead inside the Winland Tower Condominium in uptown Cebu City.

Her family, together with the members of the Crusade Against Violence (CAV,) yesterday requested the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7) to re-open the case, which remains unsolved to this day. The cause of Vina’s death was uncertain.

Authorities said the victim committed suicide while her family and anti-crime advocates believed she was already dead when her body was thrown from the building’s 26th floor down to the fifth floor.

“People believe I have accepted what happened to my daughter but there are those who wonder why I go to the cemetery almost every day. It’s very painful,” said Vina’s father Raul.

Raul yesterday lighted candles and offered a bouquet of flowers right at the very place where her daughter was found dead. He said he hasn’t accepted Vina’s fate.

Thelma Chiong, national CAV vice president, said justice has not been served to Vina whom they believed was a victim of a crime.

“She didn’t commit suicide. There was a medico-legal report that revealed that she was dead when she was thrown down,” Chiong told reporters.

The Vismanos family proceeded to the NBI-7 to request another investigation on the case.

NBI-7 Assistant Director Lauro Reyes said records of the case were not turned over by the handling investigator who retired from service.

However, Reyes said he will meet with NBI-7 agents to find out if it would be possible for them to reinvestigate the case.

“As of now, we can’t answer if we can open the case. We (can) conduct a investigation, not a reinvestigation. (But) I don’t know to what extent,” Reyes said. Chiong said no culprits were ever identified.

She said suspicions that Vina committed suicide or was killed before she was thrown down could not be substantiated by evidence or witnesses.

Vilma’s 71-year-old father is hoping that justice will be served.

“There is something wrong with our justice system. It’s very painful. If the person/s behind her death won’t be held liable here, the Almighty God will be the one to punish them later,” Raul said.   Reporter Ador Vincent Mayol