Las Piñas couple under fire for child’s death

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MANILA, Philippines—A mother in Las Piñas City could face a charge of parricide and her partner, murder, after a half-blind 7-year-old boy was killed in a fire that struck the family’s house Wednesday evening.

Las Piñas police chief Senior Superintendent Romulo Sapitula said testimony from Angelo Malbas’ younger brother showed that the boy was unable to escape the flames that ate up two houses at the Fatima Subdivision in Barangay (village) Zapote because he had been tied to a bed by his mother, Analou Satur, and her live-in partner, Bernardo Okomen.

Angelo Malbas was a child from Satur’s first marriage, Sapitula added in a telephone interview.

The child would be tied with a plastic rope whenever he got unruly or misbehaved, Sapitula quoted the boy’s aunt as saying.

Satur and Okomen denied the allegations, saying that in panic, they fled with one child when the fire broke out, and were simply not able to get to Malbas in time.

Senior Fire Officer Heraldo Porley of the Las Piñas fire station said that despite neighbors’ claims, investigators could not verify if Malbas was really tied up, since the second floor of the house where the bedroom was completely gone. Firemen found the boy’s body sprawled on the first floor with the limbs burnt away.

Reports reaching the Southern Police District Operations Center showed the fire started at 11:20 p.m. and was put out at 12:55 a.m. The cause has yet to be determined but the fire started at the Satur house.

“If our investigation finds that the fire was intentional, or if the child was intentionally left behind, we may file a murder case against the stepfather and a parricide case against the mother,” Sapitula said.