Nida Blanca, 65 years old

Dorothy Acueza Jones, (January 6, 1936–November 7, 2001) popularly known by her stage name Nida Blanca, was a Filipina actress. She has starred in over 163 movies and 14 television shows and has received over 16 awards for movies and six awards for television during her 50-year film career. She was named one of 15 Best Actress of all Time by YES magazine.

She was stabbed to death in a parking lot in San Juan City on November 7, 2001.

Born as Dorothy Acueza Jones in Gapan City, Nueva Ecija, Philippines (then a U.S. territory) to an American soldier father and a Filipina mother, she appeared in her first film at age 14. Actress Delia Razon successfully urged the head of LVN Pictures, Doña Sisang de Leon to hire Blanca.  She was screen tested on October 6, 1950 by LVN Pictures where she reigned as queen for more than a decade, doing mostly comedies opposite the late Nestor de Villa. In the movies, she has played everything from a guy-punching tomboy to a nun. She also starred in the hit TV comedy series, John En Marsha, where she played the wife who sticks by her poor husband despite her rich mother’s constant harping.[citation needed]

Blanca was married twice. She separated from her first husband, Victorino Torres when their daughter Kaye was only two years old. She later married her second husband Roger Lawrence Strunk (1940-2007), an American singer and actor, known by his screen name, Rod Lauren in Las Vegas in 1979. The couple relocated to Manila.

On November 7, 2001, Blanca was found murdered, beaten and stabbed 13 times in the back seat of her Nissan Sentra in the parking lot of Atlanta Center in Greenhills, San Juan, Metro Manila where she worked for MTRCB. She was an active member of the Movies and Television Regulatory Classification Board (MTRCB), attending screenings and rating movies twice a week, at the time of her death.

The prime suspect was Blanca’s husband Rod Strunk whom the prosecutors said had hired a hitman to kill her because Strunk was upset with his wealthy wife over property and money.   The case rests on the statements of witnesses and Philip Medel, a self-confessed killer who surrendered to PNP Task Force Marsha on November 19, 2001 and confessed that Strunk had hired him to kill Blanca. Medel recanted his testimony four days later claiming the police had tortured him into confessing. Medel remained under the custody of the police for a pending trial. Medel remained under the authority of the PNP awaiting a pending trial.

Despite Medel’s recantation, Strunk remained the prime suspect according to Philippine prosecutors, based largely on circumstantial evidence and statements of new witnesses.   Strunk was in the U.S. in 2003 when he was charged with the murder of Blanca. He left the Philippines in January 2002 to visit his mother who was dying at the time and never returned.   He was later arrested at his home and detained at the Sacramento County Jail after the Philippine government filed an extradition request against Strunk to stand trial in the Philippines. The U.S. court denied the extradition request and Strunk was immediately released from jail.  The Philippine government had filed a second extradition case against Strunk but has not received any official response from the United States government. 

Strunk committed suicide on July 11, 2007 by jumping from a second-floor balcony of the Tracy Inn in Tracy, California where he had been staying for the previous three days.

On the 7th of April,2010 Medel was reported dead on the Philippine General Hospital.  The cause of Medel’s death was blood infection [sepsis] caused by Pneumonia. Medel complained about difficulty in breathing, continuous coughing and low appetite. Medel died at the age of 62.

Kaye Torres lamented that after 7 years, the criminal case is still pending trial. She stated that she is convinced Philip Medel, who is currently detained in Pasig City jail, is guilty of the crime. 

Pending murder case on Nida Blanca was featured in the Philippine T.V. documentary show Case Unclosed as its 6th episode entitiled “Nida Blanca Murder Case.”

Teddy Diaz, 25 Yrs Old

(April 1, 1963 – August 21, 1988), was the founding guitarist of the Filipino rock band The Dawn. At the height of his career and at the peak of The Dawn’s popularity in the late 1980s, he was stabbed to death in front of his girlfriend’s house by two bystanders allegedly under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

In spite of his early demise, his influence is still felt among many guitarists in the Philippines today and he has become a legend among many Filipino musicians. The Dawn, and the Filipino music industry also consider Diaz to be the band’s driving force until today. In memory of Diaz, The Dawn has recorded a song that pays tribute to him: I Stand With You.

Teddy’s father was the Filipino actor Vic Diaz of Sampaguita Pictures fame; his grandfather was Pompeyo Diaz, a judge. He was a godchild of the “King of Philippine Movies”, the late Fernando Poe, Jr.

Teddy Diaz was born on April Fools’ Day, and was often teased because of this. He was the first grandchild on both sides of his family. Diaz had two brothers, Carl and Loren.

Teddy Diaz spent both grade school and high school in his father and grandfather’s alma mater, Ateneo de Manila University. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at the University of the Philippines as an architecture student and stayed there for three years. He transferred to the Philippine Women’s University after his third year in UP and took up music with guitar as his major.

Aside from being a musician, Diaz was also gifted with a talent in drawing. He would spend time with Fine Arts students in PWU, and would draw comic book characters and different electric guitar designs for relaxation.

After performing live at “Martin After Dark”, a show hosted by Martin Nievera, on August 21, 1988, the members of The Dawn went their separate ways and Diaz proceeded to his girlfriend’s home in Quezon City. As he was approaching the gate to the dwelling, he was accosted by two drunken men. Diaz gave them his wallet; however, one of the men, who was armed with a knife, began stabbing Diaz. Wounds on Diaz’s left arm indicated that he may have tried to parry the blows, but a knife thrust to his throat caused massive bleeding, eventually leading to his death.

Teddy Diaz’s murderer was apprehended by police a week later, tried in court, convicted and remanded to the custody of authorities at the New Bilibid Prison. Members of The Dawn state that the convict has since died in incarceration.

Lilia Velez, 24 Yrs Old

(March 3, 1924 — June 26, 1948) was a Filipino film actress and singer. Her 1948 murder by a fellow actor scandalized post-war Philippines. 

Born in Cebu to a composer, Velez first came into the limelight when she won an amateur radio singing contest in the mid-1930s. Prior to the outbreak of World War II, her singing career thrived, and she popularized one of her father’s songs, Sa Kabukiran. Velez also won the heart of Jose Climaco, the manager of the radio station which had sponsored the contest which won her fame. They were married in 1942 and had one daughter.

Velez’s film career began upon the resumption of Filipino film production after the end of the war. She joined LVN Pictures, and with her husband as director, starred in such films as Binibiro Lamang Kita, Ang Estudyante, and Sa Kabukiran, inspired by the song that had earlier earned her fame. Her leading man in these films was Bernardo “Narding” Anzures, a former child actor.

After the success of Sa Kabukiran, LVN Pictures decided to cast Jaime de la Rosa as Velez’s leading man in her next film. The decision caused distress on the part of Anzures, who had seemingly become obsessed with the married Velez.

On the night of June 26, 1948, Anzures paid an unexpected visit to the Quezon City home of Velez. Upon his arrival, he stabbed Velez to death and a housemaid who had come to her mistress’s assistance. The crime was committed within view of Velez’s toddler-daughter Vivian, who was unharmed during the incident.

Anzures was promptly arrested, tried and convicted for the murders. The crime and the subsequent trial was cause celebre in Manila. Anzures later died in jail from tuberculosis; his exact motives for the murder were never fully determined.

Leon Kilat, 24 Yrs Old

(July 27, 1873 – April 8, 1898) better known as León Kilat (Cebuano, “León of the Lightning”), was a revolutionary leader in Cebu during the Philippine Revolution against Spain. He was born in Bacong, Negros Oriental, to Don Policarpio Villegas and Doña Ursula Soldi. His grandfather was Don Pedro Villegas, a native of Spain, and Dorotea, a daughter of a capitan of Bacong.

In 1895, he worked at Botica Antigua located in the corner of Calle del Palacio and Calle Legaspi (Burgos and Legaspi). It was a well known drug store frequented by many Cebuanos. With him were Ciriaco Murillo and Eulogio Duque who told the writer Manuel Enriquez de la Calzada that Pantaleon actually used the name “Eulogio”, instead of Pantaleon. Because there were two Eulogios working in the drugstore, the German owner had to call him instead “Leon”. Why he used the name “Eulogio” was not known.

Villegas did not stay long at Botica Antigua. He transferred to a bakery in Pahina (Fagina). From there he moved on to a circus owned by Tagalogs on their way to Manila. The circus happened to be owned by a katipunero. It was there that he was recruited into the secret council of the KKK (Katipunan).

During the rebellion against Spain, Kilat led the revolutionaries in Cebu. Initially intending to begin the rebellion on Easter Sunday, he was forced to change his plans when the Spaniards discovered the planned revolt. Kilat and his men began the rebellion in Cebu on Palm Sunday, April 3, 1898. He was, however, betrayed and murdered on Good Friday, April 8, 1898, in Carcar, Cebu. He was stabbed to death by his own aide-de-camp, Apolinario Alcuitas.

The town of Bacong in Negros Oriental has honored Villegas with a statue erected in the town plaza in 1926. On July 27, 2008, the 135th anniversary of Villegas’ birth, the Philippine National Historical Institute turned over a historical marker in honor of Villegas to local and provincial officials in his hometown.^[