New maid who ‘started fire’ changes story

I LIED. This was what household helper Aubrey Soria told reporters yesterday, after she recanted her previous statement admitting that she burned down the house of her employer in Banilad, Cebu City  where a fellow helper died in the flames.

According to Soria, somebody just made her admit to the crime before, but she did not say who.

Earlier in the morning, she pleaded not guilty during her  arraignment on a charge of  qualified arson in the  sala of Regional Trial Court  Judge Simeon Dumdum Jr.

Mariano Parcon, son of the household owner retired Army Colonel Mariano Parcon Sr., said he was taken aback by the statement of the maid, who was hired just two days before the fire.

“I was really shocked because we expected her to plead guilty. She already owned up to the crime before the media,” Parcon said.

He said he believed the family had a strong case against Soria after neighbors saw her run from teh burning house with a packed bag that later yielded cellphones and a bottle of perfume  stolen from the house.

“Obviously she was the one  who caused the fire because she fled and went into hiding,” Parcon added.

On Feb. 23, firefighters  received the alarm at 2:06 a.m. and put out the fire  after 45 minutes in the  residence of the Parcon family in Holy Family Subdivision. Another househelp,Cornelia Tagalog, 50, died of suffocation during the fire./Correspondent Patricia Andrea Pateña