Task Force Vizconde finds Hubert's passport as genuine

The passport that Hubert Webb used when he supposedly left the country in 1991 was found authentic, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said on Thursday. De Lima had earlier said that the passport is a crucial piece of evidence because it was what Webb used as a defense when he was being prosecuted for the Vizconde murders. The Supreme Court, in December 2010, acquitted Webb and six other men previously convicted for the killing of Estrellita, Carmela, and Jennifer Vizconde on June 30, 1991. Webb had claimed that at the time of the killings, he was in the United States. Speaking to reporters after the Task Force Vizconde's command conference on Thursday, De Lima said that experts from the National Bureau of Investigation and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas found the passport as authentic. "We have a new [breakthrough]although we cannot divulge the details yet. What is worth noting is that experts had proven that Hubert Webb's passport was not fake. "It was a result of the examination of the NBI and the Central Bank. They tested it and found to be true and the materials of the passport was really that of the passport issued by the Foreign Affairs," De Lima said. The Justice chief added that the passport had to be studied to determine whether or not the information in the document was the truth. Still, De Lima said: "The passport maybe authentic but was he [Webb] the one who really used it? Did he really leave the country? We don't know and that would be the next task of the task force." The Parañaque Regional Trial Court had convicted Webb and six other men in 2000. Five years later, the Court of Appeals sustained the guilty verdict. But in December last year, the Supreme Court acquitted Webb and the six other co-accused. Instead of lending credence to the testimony of star witness Jessica Alfaro, the SC gave weight to Webb's defense of alibi that he was in the United States when the massacre occurred. Among the pieces of evidence Webb presented was photocopies of his passport. The Supreme Court's decision prompted the government to conduct a reinvestigation of the massacre case to put closure on who were really behind the killings. If the government uncovers the identities of the suspects in the 1991 Vizconde massacre, it only has until June 30 this year to lodge a new case. This is because the Revised Penal Code (RPC) provides that crimes like the Vizconde massacre carry a "prescription period" of 20 years. A prescription period sets the limit for filing charges from the time that the crime occurred. — RSJ, GMA News