Senior Fire Officer 2 Edgardo Hingco, arson investigator on case, said Raquel Lareza, 26, a resident of Bocaue, Bulacan, was arrested and detained for consummated arson. Also slapped with the same charges were Lareza’s partners in crime, both still missing.
Damage was initially placed by fire authorities at about P650,000. No one was killed or injured in the incident.
The razed property was part of a three-story apartment belonging to Marietta Magbiling, resident of San Francisco Subdivision, Barangay Veinte Reales, Valenzuela.
She witnessed the incident herself.
Complainants were Rowella de los Reyes, 23, a neighbor of apartment owner Magbitang, and the Valenzuela City Fire Station.
Hingco said that based on their findings, the suspects "deliberately set on fire with clear intention to raze to the ground" the apartment unit rented by De los Reyes, further endangering the lives and limbs of the occupants of the entire building.
Probers said what aggravated the act was that the suspects had personal knowledge that the said apartment was inhabited by families.
The Valenzuela Bureau of Fire Protection had recommended the filling of consummated arson against the trio.
Investigation and examination of the fire pattern revealed that the fire originated from De los Reyes’ room, burning her mattress, pillows, blanket and an electric fan. The timely response of nearby occupants prevented the fire from further spreading to adjacent rooms and nearby houses.
Fe Ludovice, 36, a cosmetics dealer, of the same apartment in Veinte Reales, said she was inside her room when she heard noises at around 1 a.m. last Monday.
She peeped through her window and saw Lareza and companions enter De los Reyes’ unit. She then roused her husband from sleep, but when she looked again, the suspects were rushing outside.
By then a fire had started in De los Reyes’ bedroom.
Ludovice said she and her husband doused the fire and turned off the open valve of the LPG tank. They said they also saw smashed furniture in the room.
Ludovice’s statement was further corroborated by De los Reyes, who alleged that Lareza’s motive for the incident was driven by her anger over the fact that her former lover, Elmer Quizon, was now living with her.
A day before the fire, Lareza, with two male companions on a motorcycle, was spotted at a bar where De los Reyes worked.
When she was told that De los Reyes was not there, a stay-in waiter at the bar heard Lareza saying. "hindi pa kami tapos, babawi ako sa kanya." – With Zsarina Salazar