4 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2010 PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER TELLING THE FILIPINO STORY TO THE WORLD

METRO
Most Memorable Metro stories
By Jaymee T. Gamil
IN THE PAST 25 years, Inquirer
Metro has accumulated a
bumper crop of stories written
by reporters covering Metro
Manila’s 16 cities and one
town, home to around 11.7 mil-
lion people. Many of the sto-
ries, although originating in the
National Capital Region, made
it to page 1, and then were fol-
lowed up again in the Metro
section.
Inquirer Metro looks back at DREAMS DIE HARD Melvin Salazar refuses to let go of the hand of
the 25 top stories that made it his mother, one of the victims in the Ultra stampede. RYAN LIM

to the section—stories on crime

and passion, triumph and de-
feat, betrayal and inspiration,
joy and anguish, tales comic
and sad—written by hardwork-
ing reporters, many of them
winners of various awards in
journalism.
SENSATIONAL CRIMES
In 1990, we saw promising
young lives violently snuffed
out. University of the Philip-
pines law graduate Ernesto
“Cochise” Bernabe II and his
girlfriend, UP graduate student
Ana Lourdes “Beebom” Cas-
tanos, were abducted from a
Quezon City restaurant on April
25, 1990, and brought to a
Pampanga warehouse where
they were stabbed to death and
buried. Their bodies were
found two months later.
The killers apparently mis-
took Bernabe for a man who al-
legedly killed the brother of one
of the suspects. The Supreme
Court convicted businessman
Rodolfo Manalili, his friend Fe-
REMEMBERING BEEBOM President Cory Aquino talks to the parents of Beebom Castanos at her wake
in Green Meadows Subdivision, Quezon City.
limon Garcia and police officers
Roberto Lising, Enrico Dizon
and Robin Manga for the mur-
ders and kidnapping. Manalili
secured an executive clemency
from then President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo in 2009. He
left the national penitentiary
early this year, while his co-
accused remain in jail.
Vizconde massacre
One of the most publicized
and heinous crimes in the last
two decades was the Vizconde
family massacre in 1991. On
June 30, 1991, a group of men
barged into the Vizcondes’
house in BF Homes, Parañaque
City, raped teenager Carmela,
and killed her along with her
mother Estrellita and sister An-
na Marie Jennifer. The family
patriarch, Lauro, was in the US
working.
The National Bureau of In-
vestigation released a list of
suspects which included Hu-
bert Webb, son of former sena-
tor and basketball star Freddie
Webb, and Antonio Lejano II,
son of actress Pinky de Leon.
The case moved at a snail’s pace
before it had a breakthrough in
1995, when a woman named
Jessica Alfaro surfaced and said
she witnessed the gruesome
murders.
Alfaro identified Webb, Le-
jano, as well as Peter Estrada,
Hospicio Fernandez, Michael
Gatchalian, Joey Filart,
Artemio Ventura and Miguel
Rodriguez as the killers, claim-
ing they were on drugs when
they committed the deed. Filart
and Ventura remain at large to
this day; the rest were sen-
tenced to life imprisonment.
Maureen Hultman case
On July 13, 1991, Claudio TESTING TED Hours after his wife’s death, broadcaster Ted Failon
Teehankee Jr., son of former submits himself to a paraffin test. RAFFY LERMA
Chief Justice Claudio Tee-
hankee Sr. shot Swedish-Fil- cide, murder and attempted Killing of Nida Blanca
ipino teenager Maureen Hult- murder. Before the trial began, The grisly end of well-loved
man and her friends Jussi Olavi Hultman, 16, died of complica- actress Nida Blanca shocked an
Leino and Rolando Chapman in tions from the gunshot wound unbelieving public. Blanca was
front of her house in Dasmari- in her head. Teehankee became found bludgeoned and stabbed
ñas Village, Makati City, as they a free man in 2008 after he was to death in the parking lot of At-
came home from a party. granted executive clemency by lanta Center in Greenhills, San
The Supreme Court found then President Macapagal-Ar-
Teehankee Jr. guilty of homi- royo. MOST/ 5