'Appealing Webb acquittal violates double jeopardy prohibition'

The camp of Lauro Vizconde may no longer seek the reversal of a Supreme Court decision that acquitted seven men, who were convicted by a lower court for the murder of his wife and two daughters almost two decades ago. In a text message on Friday, SC spokesman and administrator Jose Midas Marquez said that filing a motion for reconsideration would subject Hubert Webb and six others to double jeopardy — being tried twice for the same offense — which is prohibited by the Constitution. Section 21, Article III of the 1987 Constitution prohibits double jeopardy. "No person shall be twice put in jeopardy of punishment for the same offense," the provision states. "Acquittal in a criminal case is immediately final and executory upon its promulgation. And the state may not seek its review without placing the accused in double jeopardy," said Marquez. Public Attorney's Office head Persida Rueda Acosta was earlier reported to have said that Vizconde can still file a motion for reconsideration because a provision in the Supreme Court's internal rules allows him to skirt the Constitution's double jeopardy prohibition. But University of the Philippines law professor and human rights lawyer Theodore Te reminded Acosta that "internal rules cannot prevail over the Constitution." Acosta used to be Vizconde's counsel while the massacre case was still on trial at the Parañaque Regional Court Branch 278. In January 2000, the trial court convicted Webb and Antonio Lejano, Michael Gatchalian, Miguel Rodriguez, Hospicio Fernandez, Peter Estrada, and former policeman Gerardo Biong — a verdict sustained by the Court of Appeals in December 2005. But last Tuesday, majority of the SC justices voted to acquit Webb and the six other accused.—Sophia M. Dedace/JV, GMANews.TV