After 15 years in prison, Webb, 5 others walk free

UPDATED 4:30 p.m. - After spending 15 years behind bars, Hubert Webb and five other fellow convicts in the Vizconde massacre finally walked free on Tuesday. A radio dzBB report said the six individuals were released from the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City shortly before 4 p.m. on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court acquitted Webb and six others in the 1991 Vizconde massacre. The dzBB report said Antonio Lejano and Peter Estrada evaded journalists, rushing out of the NBP grounds and immediately boarding the vehicles waiting outside the main gate. Meanwhile, Webb entertained media interviews just outside the entrance before joining his relatives. Actor Christopher de Leon, uncle of acquitted Antonio Lejano, was among the relatives who accompanied the freed men out of the NBP. "Mag-uusap pa muna kami. Selebrasyon muna... Aalamin muna namin kung ano gusto niya sa buhay niya. Iyon ang susundan namin," said De Leon, who is the brother of Lejano's mother, celebrity Pinky de Leon. Christopher said he hoped the "real criminals" in the massacre would finally be collared. The massacre involved the rape-slay of Lauro Vizconde's daughter Carmela Vizconde, and the killings of his wife Estrellita and other daughter, Jennifer, 7. The convicts were released after the NBP director Ernesto Diokno received a copy of the SC ruling Tuesday afternoon. The SC reversed a Parañaque court's 2000 conviction and a Court of Appeals' 2005 affirmation. Immediately after the release of the SC order, Webb's family including his father — former Senator Freddie Webb — his brothers Jason and Fritz, and sister and broadcast journalist Pinky Webb all rushed to the NBP to see Hubert. From the NBP, the Webbs were set to proceed to their residence at the Cleveland Tower in southern Metro Manila. SC decision In a vote of 7-4-4 on Tuesday, the Supreme Court (SC) reversed two lower courts' findings that found him and six others guilty of killing three members of the Vizconde family almost two decades ago. While nine people have been accused in the case, the court only took action on seven of them. Two others, Artemio Ventura and Joey Filart, remain at large to this day. According to SC spokesman Jose Midas Marquez, the court acquitted the seven "for the failure of the prosecution to rule their guilt beyond reasonable doubt," said Marquez. Aside from Webb, those acquitted were:

Antonio Lejano;

Michael Gatchalian;

Miguel Rodriguez;

Hospicio Fernandez;

Peter Estrada, and

former policeman Gerardo Biong. Tuesday's ruling came two weeks after Biong, a convicted accessory in the Vizconde massacre case, was released from detention. Through a Department of Justice (DOJ) order, the former lawman was declared a free man on November 30 after completing his jail term. Biong was imprisoned in 1995 after he supposedly tampered with the evidence when he burned bloodied bed sheets at the crime scene. A Parañaque court later convicted him in 2000. Massacre case in 1991 Webb was accused of raping Carmela Vizconde, 18, who was killed in her family's Parañaque home on June 30, 1991. Her mother, Estrellita, 47, and sister, Jennifer, 7, were also killed. Webb was among the nine people convicted by Paranaque Regional Trial Court Branch 274 Presiding Judge Amelita Tolentino in January 2000 for the killings. The Court of Appeals upheld the conviction in December 2005. Tolentino is now an Associate Justice of the Court of Appeals. Webb then elevated the case to the Supreme Court and asked that a DNA analysis be conducted on a semen sample or vaginal smears taken from the body of victim Carmela Vizconde. – with Sophie Dedace, VVP, GMANews.TV