Tuesday, August 23, 2011

A Case to Remember (Vizconde Massacre)


          Three women brutally murdered one of the bloodiest crimes in the Philippines. The Vizconde massacre was graven to our times. In two decades there are no clear evidence to prove the guilt of Hubert Webb and other suspects even though they were convicted and a widower Lauro Vizconde craving for justice for 20 years. Is there a justice in the Philippines? Or these heinous acts will be tolerated by our weak enforcement of laws.
             No person shall be twice put in jeopardy of punishment for the same offense. If an act is punished by a law and an ordinance, conviction or acquittal under either shall constitute a bar to another prosecution for the same act (Article III, sec 21. Philippine Constitution). Double jeopardy does not apply to Vizconde massacre case; it is because the NBI present new evidences and witnesses. Reinvestigating the Vizconde massacre case will not put Hubert Webb and other suspect into double jeopardy.
            In this case it is a mix of public and moral law prevailed; it is an absolute that no one should deprive anyone’s life. Killing is a mortal sin not only to the public but also for GOD. The court proves the innocence of Webb after 15 years shows that we have a weak system that provides justice. We know to ourselves that one must suffer and the other must attain justice, it is a farce that the victims suffer most.
            We have to consider many aspects to convict a person, but considering it may free and convict the wrong suspect. The goodness of our constitution reflects to our people, but not all. There are some who was at the top and able to manipulate our formal system, so the conclusion; there is no equality when it comes to pursuing justice. We cannot use common sense to convict a person; we have a dew process even though it is obvious that a person commits crime. We are lacking too much on rigidity and stringency on implementing laws and policies. Justice is exclusively for the elites, and conviction is only for less-privileged individual. The Filipino people mourn with the victims of brutal and heinous crimes, but we know to ourselves that justice is too expensive and most of the time the victims cannot avail it.
            Impotent is to describe our system, we don’t have enough justice to serve to Filipino people. This is the domino effect of the interference of informal institution to our formal institution. We offered great textual laws and policies but we have a powerless enforcement. This is the fruit of our colonial mentality, wherein we don’t see our vigor to domain in all aspects of a develop nation.

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