Vizconde to spend 1st Christmas at home since murders

MANILA, Philippines - Lauro Vizconde will just stay in their Parañaque residence where his wife and two daughters were brutally murdered 19 years ago, breaking his practice of visiting the Holy Cross Cemetery in Novaliches, Quezon City to light candles, offer flowers and prayers for his family every Dec. 25.

“Since my driver took a vacation, I’d rather stay home and rekindle the happy moments we had during the Christmases when they were still alive,” he told The STAR.

“Christmases are for families. I don’t have a family anymore.”

He’d also turned down the request of his relatives to join them for Christmas, saying he’d rather spend it in silence “because through it my family becomes alive.”

There were no Christmas decorations in the Vizconde house. The place was dark, as if its residents had long abandoned the old bungalow.

Vizconde, accompanied by two housemaids, would usually stay in the patio playing Sudoku.

Inside, however, were pictures of his wife Estrellita and daughters Carmela and Jennifer. Everything inside the house – books, stuffed toys, and photos – was preserved the way his family had left it before they were murdered on June 30, 1991.

The 72-year-old widower admitted that he was still reeling from the Supreme Court’s decision to free the convicted killers of his family but remained resolute that money changed hands in the acquittal of Hubert Webb, Antonio Lejano II, Hospicio Fernandez, Michael Gatchalian, Miguel Rodriguez, Peter Estrada, and Gerardo Biong.

Vizconde said he found it “suspicious” that the court deferred the promulgation for several times, and then after deciding to promulgate in January, they suddenly included it in their Dec. 14 agenda.

He said he could not understand how Webb’s father could confidently say in television interviews that his son will be home for Christmas days before the ruling.

“If nothing happened there, why were they so sure?” Vizconde said.

Hubert, also accused of raping Carmela, is the son of former senator Freddie Webb; Lejano is the son of actress-singer Pinky de Leon; Fernandez is the son of a retired commodore; Gatchalian and Rodriguez are sons of prominent lawyers; Estrada is the son of a wealthy businessman; and Biong is the case investigator who reportedly destroyed evidence.

Webb and his family, on the other hand, have repeatedly said that he was in the United States from March 1991 to October 1992.