Mother describes seeing toddler before fatal fall at Tysons

I previously posted on this right after the incident happened last November 2010.  This is merely an update, but it brings to light some background as to why this terrible crime happened.  Filipino families are extremely close and they believe in taking care of their parents and in-laws rather than institutionalizing them in a care facility.  As a matter of fact, old age homes are unheard of in the Philippines as people stay with their family and 99.999% of the time this is an extremely good and admirable thing.

This is that .001%.

I would be the last one to recommend a change to that cultural attitude.  To the contrary, I would recommend that it be adopted here in America.  As with any other decision, however, we must never let our guard down when dealing with anyone who has, or may have, diminished mental faculties.  That is easier said than done, however, when you're dealing with a parent and this is especially true in the Filipino culture where they truly practice God's Commandment to "Honor thy mother and father."  That the mother of the little girl has agonized over having walked ahead of her mother and daughter--as she probably had many times before--goes without saying.

Please keep the family in your prayers.

Hubert Webb's Press Conference - Genuine Justice at Last!

Free at last!  

It was an early Christmas for the Webb family and for all who believe in justice.

Some 15 years ago Hubert Webb, the son of former Philippine Senator Freddie Webb, was convicted in court for his involvement in the notorious Vizconde Massacre in the Philippines.  For those of us who were in the Philippines and familiar with the case, it was a conviction based not on fact or evidence but on the exploitive media who convicted Webb in the court of public opinion long before he ever sat down before the bar of justice...or what was supposed to be a bar of justice.

My long time and trusted friend, Retired FBI Special Agent Bob Heafner, will be most pleased with this Philippine Supreme Court decision.  Bob had handled all the US leads in the case as the LEGATT (Embassy-speak for "Legal Attaché") in Manila during the investigation by the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police.  The FBI's work on the case proved beyond any doubt that young Hubert Webb was in the United States at the time of the murder; but their evidence was not allowed to be presented in the court by the sitting judge, a woman whose name escapes me at the moment but who clearly deserves to be forgotten in the dustbins of history.  Why wasn't the FBI's evidence allowed, you ask?  Because the learned (???) judge ruled that the U.S. Secretary of State was not there in court to testify to its veracity.  The judge, clearly predetermined to find the defendant guilty, set the standard for the introduction of the FBI's evidence irrationally and impossibly high.  Higher than the international norm--the evidence was presented with the appropriate seal of the United States and attested to by the U.S. State Department which is normal--and clearly so high as to prevent its introduction as evidence.  Other than the tabloid--actually it was so bad that it is almost an insult to real tabloid papers to use that descriptive term--journalism which had already convicted Webb, we may never know exactly why the judge was so determined to prevent any exculpatory evidence from being introduced in this case.  We--and I use this as inclusive of all the U.S. law enforcement officers at the U.S. Embassy--had our suspicions and even had a couple of phone calls from informants telling us who was behind the frame-up but we had no proof nor did we have the authority to investigate it.  It was, after all, a matter on the internal affairs of the Republic of the Philippines and we could only assist as requested by Philippine authorities.  Suffice it to say that then Senator Freddie Webb, Hubert's father, had previously embarrassed numerous personalities in the Philippines, some with a significant amount of power and wealth, with his Senate hearings on a drug case, a 5,000 kilogram methaqualone seizure, which I handled as the DEA Country Attaché.  Could it have been revenge?  Quite likely but absent a death bed confession by the real killers or someone who was behind framing young Hubert, we'll never know.

Today, however, I am smiling.  The Philippine Supreme Court ruled, as lawyer friends in the Philippines had always assured me it would, wisely and correctly if but slowly.  I consider this ruling a wonderful personal Christmas present, as I'm sure does Bob Heafner, for the satisfaction that I feel in finally seeing justice done.  I am sure that the happy impact of this pre-Christmas ruling on the Webb family is greater than any of us can imagine.

What still troubles me is that the trail of the actual murderers is now ice cold.  The authorities at the time took (read "were directed to") the easy and popular route and any evidence that didn't point to Webb, et al., was discarded and is now lost.  This means that the father who lost his family, Lauro Vizconde, will most likely never see the real killers brought to justice.  It also means that those killers have been free to rape and kill again all this time.  Mr. Vizconde should be in our prayers this holiday season as his loss was even greater than the injustice suffered by Hubert.  (It should be noted that Mr. Vizconde remains absolutely convinced that it was Webb, et al., who murdered his wife and two daughters.  I attribute this to the horrendous publicity of the time and that which he was told by Philippine officials in support of their case theory which played heavily on his emotional state.)  For Lauro Vizconde I am truly sad.

As for Hubert, all I can say is Merry Christmas!  You deserve it.

As a matter of disclosure, as the Country Attaché for DEA at the U.S. Embassy in Manila I did work with then Senator Webb on drug issues and grew to like and respect him.  We've not been in contact for over a decade, but I've no doubt that a terrible weight has finally been lifted off his shoulders.  God Bless you and your family this Christmas, Freddie.  I'm sure that it will be a great celebration.

Follow the link for to watch the video.

Grandmother charged after child thrown from walkway | Washington Examiner

Jesus Wept by Eric Hollander.  Today He wept for Angelyn. 

Grandmother charged after child thrown from walkway | Washington Examiner

I spent a long time in law enforcement and most of it was good. One thing that always bothered me, though, was how people could abuse their own children. As I spent many years in DEA the abuse I saw usually had drugs at its core and the parents involved were often addicts. That doesn't apply here, however, because in this case the maternal grandmother, Carmela Dela Rosa, age 50, allegedly picked-up her 2-year old granddaughter, Angelyn Ogdoc, and tossed her over the edge of a 6th story walkway between the parking garage and the Tysons Corner Center Mall in Fairfax, Virginia. Angelyn died at Fairfax Inova Hospital in the wee hours of this morning and the grandmother is now in jail and charged with murder. No reason has been given for this heinous act.

My wife, daughter and I have often been to that mall and when we've gone there we use that parking garage. The walls on the sides of the walkway are high enough that it is beyond belief that such an act could be accidental which leads me to the same conclusion as the police: a deliberate act leading to the death of an innocent child. That being said, my heart goes out to the mother, father and siblings of Angelyn. She was far too young to die and to do so in such a sudden and horrifying manner almost brings me to tears. As the father of a young, precocious and beautiful 4-year old daughter, I can imagine the stabbing pain in my own heart should something happen to her. Seeing a child terribly injured is a traumatic experience. The pain of seeing your own child in such a condition is unimaginable. I can also palpably feel what the police officers who arrived on the scene felt when they saw what had happened. Those feelings are the kind that come back to haunt us in the quiet of our nights and we carry them until the Lord calls us Home. Some call it PTSD. I call it heart.

It appears from the surnames that the people involved are ethnic Filipino--my wife, a proud Filipina, was immediately certain of that when she read the story--and that makes the case even more unusual because family is the center of the Filipino culture. Family is so important that you don't see the nursing homes in the Philippines that are prevalent in America. Family is so important that if someone is in the hospital the medical staff and the hospital just assumes that family members will be camping out in or by the patient's room. Even the family pets are kept at home to die feeling loved rather than put down at the vet's office if they are ill. That is not to say that there is never murder within family units in the Philippines. Those crimes do, of course, happen but something like this is very rare there. But of course, these circumstances are rare in the United States as well. I cannot imagine anyone not shocked by what happened to Angelyn.

All I can say is that she will be in my prayers today and I am certain that she is now in Heaven. May she rest in peace.

Follow the link for the story.

Politics devolves into blood sport in Philippines

This is the type of wanton election violence that the Armed Forces of the Philippines is trying to end.  This particular massacre in Maguindanao happened in 2009 when a political rival of the then governor sent his wife, accompanied by dozens of reporters, to file his candidacy papers.  The convoy was stopped and all were murdered. 

The Washington Post reports on what is, unfortunately, a fact of life in the Philippines.  From the time I first went to Manila in 1991 there was talk in the local new media about the problem of the Three G's:  Guns, Goons and Gold.  Those problems pre-dated my arrival and successive government administrations have been unable or unwilling to solve the problem.

The Philippines is a vibrant democracy that is tainted by a strong oligarchical power structures who will use any means necessary to preserve the status quo.  No one is immune or exempt from this social/political system and the higher up an individual is on the social ladder the more necessary it is that they have political ties to protect their status.  In many ways the Philippines reflects America's own democratic development where, in the 1800s, oligarchs strongly influenced the direction of government to their own advantage and, as it did in America--remember that Philippine democracy only truly began in 1946--it will mature.  That comforting thought. however, does little to ameliorate the pain of those who are victims of election violence in the Philippines.  It is the efforts of men of good will, like the military officer highlighted in the accompanying article, that are to be lauded.  They fight an uphill battle but one that they are sure to win if only they persevere.  

Follow the link for more.

Florida couple pleads guilty to abusing Filipino workers | ABS-CBN News | Latest Philippine Headlines, Breaking News, Video, Analysis, Features

Florida couple pleads guilty to abusing Filipino workers | ABS-CBN News | Latest Philippine Headlines, Breaking News, Video, Analysis, Features

I first saw this headline on FoxNews and then I saw it again on several on-line Filipino newspapers. When I first arrived in the Philippines in 1991 I was immediately made aware that while our U.S. media has its faults in skewing the news, they held no advantage over the rabid newspapers in Manila. One of the most egregious examples were the headlines in all the local papers about an American who murdered his girlfriend and stuffed the parts in the trunk of a car. They termed it a "chop-chop murder." Everyday for weeks there was an article in the papers detailing the crime and ascribing it to the "American."

When the facts came out it turned out that the individual was indeed the son of an American serviceman who left the Philippines before the "American" was born and did not participate in the parenting of the murderer. To top it off, the individual was raised by his Filipino family totally in the Filipino culture and never knew his father let alone visited America. By virtue of American law, he did get an American passport so was technically, I suppose, an American, but about as much an American as I am a German, a Norwegian or a Brit. In other words, not really at all, so I suppose the whole point of the newspaper headlines was not to accurately report the crime but to sensationalize it by ascribing the criminality to a foreigner. It also served to provide the false impression that only foreigners would commit such a heinous crime.

This case is very much the same. The same on-line media that was touting the move of two "Fil-Ams" into advisory positions in the White House and the re-election of another Fil-Am to a state position in Maryland reported on the "Florida couple" who had enslaved Filipino Overseas Contract Workers (OCWs). But they did so while failing to report that these two "Floridians" were also Fil-Ams taking advantage of their own former countrymen. These criminals do, of course, deserve the harshest prison sentence possible for their hard-hearted scheme that prayed on the willingness of good, hard-working OCW Filipinos to travel to far and distant lands for work; and I am reasonably certain that they would get an even harsher sentence in Manila. But they also deserve the shameful notoriety back home in the Philippines so that others might hesitate to follow the same path of profitable criminality. There are many employment agencies that hire and take good care of Filipino workers here in the U.S. but it behooves all to recognize that some are less interested in taking care of their employees than in their own profit. The OCW must always take care not to fall for the lies of a smooth talking recruiter. The salient point is, however, that it is all well and good, even laudable, to highlight the successes of people of Filipino descent who have migrated to other countries, but to purposely avoid mentioning the heritage of individuals who commit crimes when it is inconvenient is a disservice to all. A Fil-Am is a Fil-Am whether they have achieved fame or notoriety for the fame or the notoriety really points to the individual's character rather than their ethnic heritage. It is the character of the individual that counts and not the tint of their skin or the blood that runs in their veins and shame on those who perpetuate anything less.

By the way, lest you think that identifying the ethnicity of the two was too difficult for the news media in the Philippines–after all, there are a lot of Latinos in Florida and the names are very similar–bear in mind that it only took about half a dozen clicks of the mouse to get the information. You can go to:

www.bastapinoy.com/immigration_NEWS_Florida_Pinoy_couple_charged_201004280012-1.htm

and see it for yourself.

Follow the link for the story.

Founding Member of Abu Sayyaf Group Pleads Guilty to 1995 Hostage Taking Involving U.S. and Philippine Citizens

Good news for the day.

While I criticize the Holder Justice Department for its politicization, this case, which pre-dated the current Regime, was successfully prosecuted. Kudos to the DOJ on this one.

That being said, I would have liked to have seen a life without parole sentence, but the wheels of justice sometimes require plea agreements in order that they move smoothly and this was one of those times.

For those of you who don't recognize this terrorist organization, the Abu Sayyaf Group has been a thorn in the side of the Philippine government since the late 1980s. They've been responsible for kidnappings, murders and mayhem in the southern Philippines. They were the group responsible for the kidnapping of American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham in May of 2001. Martin died in the rescue attempt that freed Gracia and if you haven't read her book, In the Presence of My Enemies, I would strongly recommend it. 

The Abu Sayyaf is best described as a terrorist group that profits from bank robberies, murder, rape and pillage. They profess Islam and their founder, Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani was born in a Christian-Muslim family in Mindanao and joined the Afghan jihad against the Russians. When he returned to the Philippines he was a committed Islamic extremist bent on jihad against the Philippine government and all Christians.

The Abu Sayyaf Group was borne of his jihad, but it must be remembered that Islamic lawlessness in Mindanao is not a new development. The first U.S. military expeditions to Mindanao were on the heals of the Spanish-American War when the United States seized the Philippines from the Spaniards. General John J. "Blackjack" Pershing was moved to lead an expedition to quell the kidnapping of Americans in Mindanao at the beginning of the 20th century. It is true that history does repeat itself.

Follow the link for more on the case.

SC orders DNA test in Vizconde massacre case - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

SC orders DNA test in Vizconde massacre case - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

The rape and murder of the beautiful young and innocent victim in this case was horrific by any standard and the Philippine press kept it in the headlines for months. Truth be told, the case was tried in the press and the defendant convicted before he ever stepped into the courtroom. Still, his attorney presented a strong defense that should have established the doubt necessary to prevent conviction yet it was to no avail. The judge convicted the defendant and sentenced him to life in prison. But in my criminal investigator mind I've always doubted that the verdict was correct and believed that the actual murderer was still walking the streets of Metro Manila. My doubt about the case was centered on two major issues:

First, the DNA test was requested by the defendant during trial but the judge denied the request. I could never figure out why the jurist would disallow a proven scientific test that could prove guilt, or innocence, beyond a shadow of a doubt for if defendant Webb's DNA was present then he was clearly guilty.

Second, the FBI, acting on a request from the Philippine government, investigated and found that Herbert Webb was in the United States at the time the crime was committed. The judge disallowed the evidence on grounds that violate common sense and, many would say, international norms: The evidence was certified by the U.S. Secretary of State but because the U.S. Secretary of State did not appear to present the evidence, she ruled it was not admissible.

In the end the defendant was convicted on eyewitness testimony that many believed was specious but which the judge found credible. No physical evidence was found connecting Herbert Webb to the crime and the weakest evidence of all is an eyewitness to a crime.

Webb's father, then a politician, was at the time in the opposition to the sitting President of the Philippines. There was suspicion but no evidence that this played a role in the case. If it had it wouldn't have been all that surprising. Justice in other parts of the world is just not the same as in the United States and despite our own efforts, it still goes astray from time to time even here.

The Philippine Supreme Court has now wisely decided that the DNA evidence should be compared. It may, of course, not be conclusive because of the time that has passed and storage of that evidence may not have helped preserve it. But we can hope that justice may finally be done in this case. If the evidence shows that the defendant was at the scene which, given the FBI's findings I do doubt, then the doubt that I have as to his guilt will be erased. But if the evidence clearly shows that the defendant was not the murdering rapist, then my doubts will be confirmed and he will go free. But in the intervening years since that terrible crime he has gone from a young man to maturity while incarcerated in prison. There is no one who can give him back those years.

I'll certainly let all know what the results of the DNA test are as soon as they are released. 

Follow the link for the story in the Philippine press.

A Wee Dram of Heaven on Earth

I’ve finally found a place to post from, aside from the Powerplant Mall, that is assuredly the most civilized location in town. Located in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Makati, Kipling’s is listed as one of Whisky magazine’s “Great Bars of the World.”

Aside from an assortment of well over 200 single malt whiskies and 40 fine wines, it is a small piece of heaven for cigar smokers as well. With an impressive assortment of premium Cuban, Dominican and Honduran cigars and lovely assistants to perfectly light your cigar for you, it is a favorite retreat for many local businessmen and world travelers.

Kipling’s opened 10 years ago this coming November—I remember the day well—and it is the brainchild of a group of cigar and Scotch whisky aficionados who wanted a more refined location to enjoy themselves. The organization of the place was left to Ma’am Barbara—Mrs. Barbara Cumagan—a Scotswoman of extraordinary knowledge, skill and culture who trained the staff and set the standards of behavior for both the staff and the customers. The staff adheres to the standards as, generally, do the customers.

Imagine, if you will, sitting on a green leather couch in a room with dark hardwood floors, tastefully appointed decorations and quiet music to set the mood for both thinking, writing and business negotiations. Throw in an attentive staff that won’t allow you to light your own cigar and who respectfully remain just out of earshot unless invited closer and you’ve imagined Kipling’s.

It is from Kipling’s that I will do most of my posting during the coming weeks except, of course, for the couple of weeks that we will be in Australia.

More to come.