A second look at the Vizconde Massacre

December 15, 2010 – Philippines, After two decades of seeking for justice, the Vizconde Massacre still has a tight emotional grip on Filipinos. After the Supreme Court upturned the murder conviction of Hubert Webb and six others on December 14 and the world witnessed a weak and inconsolable Lauro Vizconde.

Many Filipino gave their insights on the case result; some of them aired their support for Vizconde and his continuing quest for justice. While some opinion is divided over Webb’s innocence, many agreed that 15 years in jail is too short for a guilty man — and too long for an innocent man.

If we will do a records search on this case, the said massacre happened on June 30, 1991 at their house in BF Homes, Parañaque City, Philippines. It was a multiple homicide of the Vizconde Family.

Findings:

Estrellita (47 years old) - suffered thirteen stab wounds

Carmela (18 years old) - seventeen stab wounds and had been raped before she was
killed

Jennifer (7 years old) - nineteen stab wounds.

Mr. Lauro Vizconde the father was in the United States by that time when the murder took place. It was a sensational story and the media had a field day. An anti-crime group was formed which launched a media barrage and the public lapped it up. Background checking the accused persons, they all came in a popular and influential families. Suspects are Hubert Webb, Antonio Lejano II, Hospicio Fernandez, Michael Gatchalian and Miguel Rodriguez. The case was unsolved for almost four years until a witness Jessica Alfaro appeared and testified against these persons. They were convicted by a lower court and the Philippine Court of Appeals but now acquitted by the Philippine Supreme Court.

Still with all the people affected it is more painful for Mr. Vizconde who says that he was “puzzled” and “disgusted” at how the Supreme Court reversed a ruling that has been affirmed by a local court and the Court of Appeals. He also said that now that the Supreme Court acquitted all the accused in this case, they should do their part to help him find the real killers to prove that the people they had acquitted were really innocent.

“I no longer expect justice in the laws of man. But I believe that in the end God will judge those who are lying and those who are saying the truth.” He wished the Webb family luck, saying Hubert and the six others were “fortunate" that “circumstances favored them."

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DPR fails to conduct Background Checks

December 1, 2010 - The D.C Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) which no longer operates child care centers under the program, failed to meet basic background check requirements.

A D.C government agency which received $1 million a year which is use to provide child care services under the federal head program failed to conduct background checks on its employees which includes workers who has previous cases of drug and other felony offenses. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Investigators said that a total of 43 employees failed to meet basic background check.

According to the report, the workers includes six DPR drivers who have been disqualified from working with children because of their past offenses like kidnapping, assault with deadly weapon and possession of marijuana and cocaine with intent to distribute. According to a Security Expert conducting background and criminal check on employees is not a problem to the city agency. All they have to do is to submit the names of their employees with their social security number to a background check company out there which is not a problem because of dozens of companies which offers the same service.

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TSA: full-body scanning or path-down inspection?

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is now requiring all passengers at some U.S. airports either to pass through a full-body scanning device which reveals everything beneath their clothing, or to submit to a thorough path-down inspection – a choice that some travelers livid about their loss of privacy.

This safety measures are have been a touchy issue in the U.S. because of the alarming detection of illegal or dangerous items . TSA said that keeping passenger safe is their top priority that why this new measure is necessary. They actually give supporting evidence that because of these advance imaging technology, detection of over 130 prohibited, illegal and dangerous item had been done. That’s why passengers should be aware of this new safety measures that will actually made you think of your choice to undergo full-body scanning or pat-down inspection.

TSA also said that in the future they would “stop looking for bad thing and start looking for bad people.” They said that government has a lot of information on everyone who gets on plane that will soon have intelligence into a checkpoint. "Today the checkpoint is just looking for bad objects, but the agent doesn’t know anything about the traveler." With a quick background check, agents could assess the risk associated with each traveler, then use things like scanners and path-downs to further analyze those deemed high risk.

TSA says that they are always looking for ways to improve, but for now the scanners and the path-down are the best way to keep people safe in the sky.

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Brian David Mitchell’s Case of 2002

"I was still a person of worth ... I decided to live." After eight years traumatic experience this was the statement of Elizabeth Smart in the proceeding of her case against Brian David Mitchell at the court in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Brian David Mitchell is accused of abducting the then-14-year-old Elizabeth Smart in 2002. Smart says that the accused Mitchell told her that he really loves her the moment he first saw her. She said that it was in the fall of 2001 with her mother, they saw Mitchell outside the mall and her mother gave him five bucks and hired him to do simple house repair. But then Brian David kidnapped Elizabeth Smart for nine months, "sealed" her to him as his wife and raped her.

To do a background check on Brian David Mitchell he had his wife Wanda Barzee which was also became part of abducting Elizabeth which was a minor on her age. Elizabeth stated what these two did to her, she stated that she was being raped “daily at a very least” tethered between two trees "like an animal," and forced to watch and participate in sex acts of this two. She said she was forced to smoke cigarettes and drink wine and "hard liquor." Mitchell’s attorney Parker Douglas appealed on the jury that his client was not responsible for what he did but say that his client was insane at the time of the alleged abduction, and therefore not responsible for his actions. He also described his client as a “crazy person who comes in the middle of the night" -- exactly what we are taught to fear as children, he said.

But the evidences was strong enough to plead the accused as guilty, and then Barzee, 64, pleaded guilty in November 2009 to kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor in federal court and was sentenced in May to 15 years in federal prison. As part her plea agreement she agreed to cooperate in the state and federal cases against her husband.

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