Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who chairs the interagency task force, likewise stressed the “crucial” investigative work in determining who had ordered former Parañaque policeman Gerardo Biong to clean up the house where Estrellita Vizconde and her two daughters Jennifer and Carmela were stabbed to death.

De Lima spoke with reporters after a closed-door meeting with the three teams of the task force at the National Bureau of Investigation office in Manila.

She said a point raised during the meeting was the “desirability of posing a challenge to Webb and company to agree to submit to a polygraph test.”

“If they are telling the truth, why not take a polygraph test at this point?” the justice secretary said, adding that even if the result of the reinvestigation would confirm they were the “real culprits,” they could not be charged in court of the same crime because of the rule on double jeopardy.

“So if they are one with us in determining the truth and finding full or total closure to this case, we challenge them to cooperate by submitting to a polygraph test,” she said.

Calls made by the Inquirer to Webb’s lawyer, Demetrio Custodio, and father, former Sen. Freddie Webb, went unanswered until press time.

Custodio and the elder Webb also did not reply to a text message asking them to comment on De Lima’s challenge.

‘Sir’

Apart from posing the challenge, De Lima emphasized the importance of identifying the person who had ordered Biong to “sanitize” the Vizconde home.

She noted that there was previous information from Biong’s girlfriend, Lolita de Birrer, that the then police officer was talking to a “sir” on the telephone before he cleaned up the crime scene.

“There were speculations before, only about the identity of that ‘sir.’ For us, that’s material and crucial,” De Lima said. “If Biong was sent there ... to do the sanitizing or the cleanup of the scene of the crime, he must have been getting instructions from someone. Was that ‘sir’ a superior or a powerful figure? That was never established,” she said.

De Lima said this was one of the reasons Rogelio Pureza, a former police chief of Parañaque City, was summoned on Friday by the task force.

“We were hoping that General Pureza has some insights about that. But apparently, he is also clueless as to who that ‘sir’ was,” she said.

Documents

Pureza said he was “on leave” at the time of the massacre and that it was his former deputy, Amante Asuncion, who took his place as chief of police. Asuncion died several months ago, he said.

Nevertheless, Pureza was able to submit to the task force official reports furnished to him as someone who was up for promotion in 1991 and who was then being considered to head the Southern Police District.

“I cannot help much even if I wanted to, but I hope the documents I gave them will be of help… The search for truth must continue in fairness to [the widower and father] Lauro Vizconde,” Pureza said.

He said he was glad that he was able to keep intact most of the documents pertaining to the massacre.

Jeannette Andrade, Phil. Daily Inquirer