Jigsaw Murder 1967

The year is 1967 and the most gruesome news today has just come in.

Her case was highly sensationalized, and hers was abnormally scary. Lucila Lalu, 28, came to Manila from Candaba, Pampanga to seek fortune in 1961 (some say 1957). She actually did find fortune. She had two flourishing businesses: the Pagoda Soda Fountain, a cocktail lounge along Rizal Avenue, and Lucy's House of Beauty, a beauty parlor along Mayhaligue Street, Sta. Cruz, Manila. At the same time, she became a common-law wife of a married policeman, Aniano Vera, whom she had a son as reported. However, she also had a lover, Florante Relos, a 19-year old waiter of the Pagoda Soda Fountain.

They found her legs first, chopped expertly into four pieces and wrapped in a newspaper, in a garbage can on Malabon St., Sta. Cruz. A day later, her body, headless and legless, was found on a vacant lot along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue.

The suspects of the case included her 19-year-old lover, Florante Relos, Patrolman Aniano de Vera, and Jose Luis Santiano, a 28-year-old dental student.

On the 15th of June 1967, Santiano, the 28-year old dental student surfaced and confessed to the crime. He recounted and detailed the events that led to the brutal killing. However, a few days later, he retracted and repudiated his confession and insisted on his innocence. But the authorities were firmed on their decision to pursue the case against the new suspect.

Monyeka

As life continues to feed us with its struggles, hardships and success; there are things that life can never take away from us. 

Even though we go through the small opening of a needle, even though we almost feel alone. There is something life gave us that turns everything around. Family. 

It may be small, it may be big, it can be broken and apart or whole and contented. Family is family, it is what makes us whole; but in some cases family can be our reason to hold on. 

In Monyeka by Alice Tan the story revolves around an old maiden living in a destitute mansion Cita, She is often inside the mansion even though it is no longer fit to live in. Cita is the youngest of five, the only person among the siblings to live in the mansion after the fall of their sugarcane plantation. 

Cita would find herself in the company of her dolls, old, dusty and ragged dolls. Others may say it is odd for a woman of such age to play with childish toys but, these dolls mean more to her than what they see. Living alone in the mansion made Cita lonely but, she saw a doll and a middle that loneliness she saw herself in that doll. She kept the doll and started to collect some to bring company to her dolls, Cita is happy. 

Inside the destitute mansion where all her memories of their past flow, where the good and bad times hover in the four corners of the place, Cita finds peace and tranquility. Family, it may be by blood or by friendship. It may not be that you are connected but, family is family. It is what makes us whole, it is what keeps us moving forward and to look back at the past. these dolls mean more to her than what they see. 

Living alone in the mansion made Cita lonely but, she saw a doll and a middle that loneliness she saw herself in that doll. She kept the doll and started to collect some to bring company to her dolls, Cita is happy. Inside the destitute mansion where all her memories of their past flow, where the good and bad times hover in the four corners of the place, Cita finds peace and tranquility. Family, it may be by blood or by friendship. It may not be that you are connected but, family is family. It is what makes us whole, it is what keeps us moving forward and to look back at the past. these dolls mean more to her than what they see.Living alone in the mansion made Cita lonely but, she saw a doll and a middle that loneliness she saw herself in that doll. 

She kept the doll and started to collect some to bring company to her dolls, Cita is happy. Inside the destitute mansion where all her memories of their past flow, where the good and bad times hover in the four corners of the place, Cita finds peace and tranquility. Family, it may be by blood or by friendship. It may not be that you are connected but, family is family. It is what makes us whole, it is what keeps us moving forward and to look back at the past.


Family is what keeps us together, it is a part of us that can never be taken away. The world may turn it's back on us but, our family will always be there.