(Update) 'Sisig Queen' murdered

ANGELES CITY - The Sisig Queen is dead! Lucia Lagman Cunanan, 80, the woman behind the "Aling Lucing's Sisig" eateries and the acknowledged re-inventor of the Kapampangan dish "sisig," was found dead with 10 stab wounds in the body inside her room at 1538 C. Pineda Street in Barangay Claro M. Recto here Wednesday morning. Fred, 54, one of the victim's sons, said his father, Victorino, was tasked to get some food from their store a few blocks away when the incident happened. He said when Victorino came back from the errand, he found his wife and bathing in her own blood. The housemaid, Bibeth Regoncilo, 36, who was sleeping in a separate room, was unharmed. "It was around 4 a.m. (Wednesday) when my father went out, when he came back my mother was dead. She does not have any quarrel with anyone," he said, adding that his mother spent most of her time at home after relegating family business obligations to her children. The 10 stab wounds sustained by Cunanan were inflicted by a still unidentified killer. Victorino found her wife's body on their bed when he returned to their room. He told police investigators that he left their house at 3 a.m. to get some food from their night shop in Barangay Agapito Del Rosario here but the establishment was already closed when he got there. When he returned home and proceeded to their room, he was surprised to find everything in disarray. Chief Inspector Jaime Villamil, chief of Angeles Police-Station 6, said Angeles Police Director George Gaddi has ordered a deeper investigation into the case. Villamil said the death of Mrs. Cunanan was a robbery homicide but added that police are also looking into other possible angles. "So far we do not have any suspects," Villamil said, adding that there was no sign of force entry as showed by the initial findings of the Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco). He said the killer took the victim's gold necklace and two gold rings. Villamil said the case was turned over to the Detective Management Bureau (DMB) of the city police, which will conduct a full-blown investigation into the case. As of Wednesday afternoon, the DMB headed by Senior Inspector Danilo Cadiz, is taking statements from Victorino. The police also invited the maid for questioning. Victorino told police investigators that the perpetrator left without taking any cash from their room. He added that some dents on the cash vault showed that the killer tried to open this forcibly using a hammer, but in vain. According to one of the victim's relatives, a same break-in incident happened a few months back allegedly perpetrated by someone close to the family. However, the incident was not reported to the police. "My mother did not deserve to die that way," exclaimed Lolita while holding a picture of the grand matriarch of Kapampangan cooking. Police officials here are still pursuing possible leads on the resolution of the case. Barangay Claro M. Recto chairman Valentino Lagman, a close of the victim, denounced the killing and vowed to help in gathering information to help police in solving the case. Vice Mayor Vicky Vega-Cabigting expressed shock and sadness over the death of Cunanan. "We condemn in the strongest terms the killing of culinary icon Aling Lucing Cunanan! Her death is a great loss to Angeleños and the Kapampangans as well. Aling Lucing has placed Angeles City in the tourism map for her delectable 'sisig'. We will miss the Sisig Queen and we hope that her Legacy will live on," she said. Cunanan was credited for reinventing the native dish "sisig," by creating a variant that has been known nationally. She hailed from La Paz, Tarlac and was able to marry in Pampanga and started her business in 1974, which became successful. Aling Lucing, as she is popularly called, is the Grand Slam Winner of the 2005 Angeles City Sisig Festival, besting 176 competing sisig recipes. She is also the recipient of other culinary awards and recognitions and appeared in a soy sauce commercial with other big culinary names. She has also been fondly called as Sisig Queen by local food lovers who have fallen in love with her special dish. - Sun.Star Pampanga