Cecille Villacorta is the granddaughter of highly-decorated, Philiipine national hero General Paulino Santos, which cosmopolitan and renowned travel destination, General Santos City, in the Philippines is named after. General Santos City, or Gen-San, is also home of famous boxing champion, Manny Pacquiao. Her maternal grandmother was Elisa Angeles, who was a beloved homemaker. Her paternal grandfather, Dr. Jose Villacorta, was the highly accomplished first Filipino malariologist. Her paternal grandmother was the beloved, Matea De Sequera, touted as a "woman ahead of her times". A highly successful businesswoman, she regularly travelled to Europe with her brood of six daughters and only son, Rolando Sr. She sent her youngest daughter for high-school to the US, which in the 1930's was unheard of in Philippine society. That daughter, the only living sibling of her father, is a successful real estate owner-developer in Southern California. Her father was Rolando Sr., a Colonel in the Philppine military reserve. Her mother was Lourdes Santos Villacorta, who before entering public service, was in production for Sampaguita Pictures, a film production company in the Philippines owned by her cousin Jose Perez, "Tito Pinggot" (deceased) and Azucena Vera-Peza, the much respected and loved "Tita Nene".
Her family on both sides, were educators, Rosa Santos Munda, her deceased aunt, was dean of Philippine Women's College in Davao, a province in southern Philippines. Another aunt, Belinda De Sequera Villacorta, also deceased, was a teacher in the American School in Makati, Philippines.
Cecille Villacorta, a devout Roman Catholic, has made it her personal mission to spread the devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows and to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
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