MANILA, Philippines - Former Senator Freddie Webb is set to ask the Supreme Court (SC) to dismiss criminal charges against his son, Hubert Webb, after the state lost vital evidence which, he said, could prove his son's innocence in a 19-year-old rape-murder.
Speaking to ANC's Top Story, Webb said his lawyers will file the motion to dismiss the rape and murder charges against his son after the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) lost a semen sample allegedly taken from rape victim, Carmela Vizconde.
He said there have been several rulings in US courts wherein criminal charges were dropped against a suspect after the state lost evidence that could have been used to pin down the culprit.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside its earlier resolution granting the request of Hubert Webb, one of the principal accused in the 1991 Vizconde massacre, for a DNA test of the semen specimen taken from the cadaver of Carmela, who was raped prior to her murder.
"It is evident that the [National Bureau of Investigation] NBI could no longer produce the semen specimen/vaginal smears taken from the cadaver of Carmela Vizconde y Nicolas. Consequently, the DNA analysis ordered by this Court upon the request of appellant Webb, can no longer be done," the Court said.
It added: "The Court may now proceed to resolve the issues raised in the petition/appeal on the basis of existing evidence which have been formally offered by the parties and/or made part of the records."
The former senator said the loss of the semen sample was the fault of the National Bureau of Investigation, who simply did not bother to take care of the evidence.
He also pointed out that his family asked for a DNA test in 1997, six years after the massacre and 3 years before a local court judge would hand down the guilty verdict and sentence Hubert Webb and 5 other accused to life imprisonment.
The former senator said that if the prosecutors believed that their case was airtight, they would not have objected to the DNA test.
"Why did they object? They were objecting because they knew that Hubert was innocent. They knew he was outside of the Philippines (at the time of the massacre). No person in his right mind would ask for a DNA test. You wouldn't say that if you were guilty. Only the people who are innocent would ask for a DNA test. But they objected," he said.
Webb also lamented the loss of the semen sample, noting that as far back as 1997, the prosecutors did not want them to have a look at the evidence.
"What is the difference between nawala and winala? Our feeling is that as early as 1997, they already kept it away from us because they were afraid that the next court would grant us a DNA test," he said.
By David Dizon,
abs-cbnNEWS.com
source
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