Man burns home after wife left him

CEBU, Philippines - A jobless man believed to be high on illegal drugs was taken into custody after he was accused of intentionally setting fire to his house past 4 a.m. yesterday.

The resulting blaze destroyed around 100 homes and displaced at least 78 families in Sitio Little Pasil, Barangay Kamputhaw, Cebu City.

The 298 affected residents are now temporarily staying at the barangay gym. Of the 78 families, 37 were sharers while three were renters.

Hours after the incident, barangay officials declared the place under a state of calamity so they could immediately attend to the needs of the victims.

Chief Insp. Wildemar Tiu, Fuente Police Station chief, said they arrested Orlando Mendoza, 29, after he was tagged as the one who purposely burned down his house.

SFO3 Roylen Maratas said Roque Dacaldacal, 33, told investigators that before the fire broke out, he heard banging coming from the Mendoza’s house.

When Dacaldacal checked, he allegedly saw the suspect holding a lighter and the next thing he knew Mendoza’s house was already burning.

Dacaldacal confronted the suspect, accusing him of starting the fire, resulting to a fistfight between them.

Policemen who responded to the alarm saw the two exchanging punches and intervened; they, however, handcuffed Mendoza minutes later after learning the cause of the fight.

Dacaldacal suffered first degree burn in his right hand and third degree burn in his left cheek because of the fire.

Tiu said that Mendoza seemed to be under the influence of illegal drugs during his arrest.

“My initial assessment, morag naka-tama ning bataa, morag wala pa gyud nakatugpa ning tawhana (he was still high on illegal drugs),” he said.

Tiu told The FREEMAN said that after Mendoza was arrested they recovered a disposable lighter from the suspect.

A certain Popoy, Mendoza’s uncle, also told the police that the suspect’s wife had left him because they always quarreled.

Tiu said that the suspect allegedly threatened that if his wife would not return he would burn down their house.

Interviewed in his cell at the Fuente Police Station, Mendoza denied causing the fire, saying he was not there when it started.

 “Di na tinuod sir uy…bag-o pa ko naabot gikan lakaw unsaon nako pagsunog sa amoa (That it not true (that I started the fire). I just arrived, how could I have started it)?” he said.

“Pag-abot sa amoa sunog na.  Nilakaw ko sir kay naa koy baligya relo kay birthday lagi nako ugma (When I arrived my house was already on fire. I left to sell my watch because it is my birthday tomorrow),” he added.

Kamputhaw Barangay Captain Trifonio Lequigan, Jr. said they were giving P5,000 in cash assistance to each of the families.

Mayor Michael Rama also said City Hall would likewise give the victims financial aid.

City Fire Marshall Rogelio Bongabong said they initially pegged the damage caused by the fire to be at least P200,000.

His office received the alarm at 4:54 a.m. and responding firemen managed to place the blaze under control at 5:28 a.m. and completely extinguished the last ember at 8:17 a.m.

While the police are preparing the filing of an arson complaint against Mendoza, City Hall’s Department of Social Welfare and Services, on the other hand, is providing food to the victims for three days.

Lequigan said they have yet to decide whether or not they would allow those victims who lived right by the river to return considering that there is also the need to enforce the three-meter easement zone law.

Article 51 of Presidential Decree No. 1067 (The Water Code of the Philippines) states that “The banks or rivers and streams and the shores of the seas and lakes throughout their entire length and within a zone of three meters in urban areas, twenty meters in agricultural areas and forty meters in forest areas, along their margins, are subject to the easement of public use in the interest of recreation, navigation, flotage, fishing, and salvage.”

“No person shall be allowed to stay in this zone longer than what is necessary for recreation, navigation, flotage, fishing, or salvage or to build structures of any kind,” it added.

Lequigan said the lot where the fire occurred was owned by the residents and not by the government.

Last April, fire also hit the barangay, leaving one person dead and destroying at least 30 houses.

April last year, fire razed at least 13 houses in the same barangay and destroyed an estimated P600,000 worth of properties.

Yesterday, Rama told reporters that after removing debris from the fire scene, the city would re-block the area to widen the road for better access during emergencies. — /RHM (FREEMAN)