Mysterious Unsolved Cases Two of the greatest unsolved mysteries in the Philippines today, if not in the world: the

Vizconde case and the Aquino-Galman case, each remain an enigma marred by the propensity of the authorities charged with the dispensation of justice to bungle their cases with administrative lapses or grave abuse of discretion. The first involved the son of a Senator as one of the accused in the rape and murders of a family; the second, involved the murder of a Senator who opposed the rule of former president and dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos. A. the Vizconde murders On June 30, 1991 at the residence of the Vizcondes in BF Homes, Paranaque, Metro Manila, Philippines, Estrellita (47), had succumbed to thirteen stab wounds; Carmela (18), was raped before succumbing to seventeen stab wounds; and Jennifer (7), had nineteen stab wounds. In this case the mysterious occurrences of the following: 1) semen samples for DNA testing were lost en-route to the custody of the Paranaque Regional Trial Court 274 after the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) remanded them; 2) the rejection by Judge Tolentino of 132 of 142 pieces of evidence by the defense and later reversing them; 3) the absence of expert technical investigation's report on the photographs and videos purporting to prove Hubert Webb's presence in America during the time of the murders; 4) the rejection of the testimonies of the household helps Mila Gaviola and Nerissa Rosales who testified that Hubert Webb was in the country (at home) during the time of the murders; and 5) the burning of bedsheets and tampering of other evidence by Officer Biong in violation of police procedure; only served to fuel the belief that the bureaucracy considers itself above the law. Whatever one makes out of this case, it is a manifestation of the creeping corruption that has persistently lodged itself into the system which has turned this into a cold case. The absence of the member of the judiciaries standing up to fight for the principles of a just society and the allegations and proofs of the widespread practice of bribery replete with rates depending on the remedy applied for (e.g. TROs and Injunctions for Php50,000.00), the position of the official (Php 50,000.00 for judges and Php 20,000.00 for prosecutors) and the methods for paying them (casino chips or cash). B. Captain Felipe Valerio It has since been over 28 years since the murder of Senator Benigno Aquino, yet of all the persons under the suspicion of involvement or participation in this case, the disappearance of the person of former Air Force Captain Felipe Valerio was a most mysterious occurrence and remains an enigma. Valerio was the commander of the Aviation Security Command (Avsecom) 805th Special Operations Squadron tasked with securing the then Manila International Airport the time Aquino and his alleged gunman Rolando Galman were killed. In an interview by Inquirer reporter Fe Zamora posted online in the internet on August 8, 2007 of Senior Police Officer 4 Ruben Cantimbuhan, who urged government to bring to court his former CO, Captain Felipe Valerio Jr., who led the 10-man unit assigned to secure Aquino on his return from US exile on August 21, 1983. Cantimbuhan, still a member of the renamed Philippine National Police Aviation Security Group, maintained that Valerio, a 1974 graduate of the Philippine Military Academy, holds the key to the case.1 Persida Acosta, chief Public Attorney said, the case can be reopened for the primary purpose of identifying the mastermind by extraditing Air Force Captain Felipe Valerio, who is reportedly working as a pilot in the United States.2 While the case itself convicted the members of the squadron who boarded
1 Zamora, Fe. Avsecom van driver insists: Galman shot Aquino. Inquirer. August 8, 2007. Web. May 19, 2011. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20070820-83695/Avsecom_van_driver_insists %3A__Galman_shot_Aquino 2 Mastermind of Ninoy assassination can still be revealed. PNP-PST. March 12, 2009. Web. May 15, 2011. http://www.philippineasiannewstoday.com/archived/5178-mastermind-of-ninoy-assassination-can-still-be-revealed.html

the aircraft to secure the senator, the air force captain is missed for his testimony which would have linked the next officer in the chain of command he was reporting to in is hand-held radio. Without this testimony, the prosecution could not successfully debunked the defense claim that Rolando Galman acted alone to kill the senator. While pursuit to this end was futile in the time of President Corazon C. Aquino with doubts as to the ends it will serve if pursued by her son, the current president, people are still hoping that this pernicious stigma of a rotten bureaucratic judiciary is stopped by a genius stroke applied effectively, efficiently, and inexpensively. For if a president will not lift a finger to legally uncover the mastermind behind his own father's murder, how can the ordinary citizen.

Sources:

Zamora, Fe. Avsecom van driver insists: Galman shot Aquino. Inquirer. August 8, 2007. Web. May 19, 2011. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/2007082083695/Avsecom_van_driver_insists%3A__Galman_shot_Aquino Mastermind of Ninoy assassination can still be revealed. PNP-PST. March 12, 2009. Web. May 15, 2011. http://www.philippineasiannewstoday.com/archived/5178-mastermind-of-ninoyassassination-can-still-be-revealed.html