Metro Briefs: Drunken man dies in La Loma fire

A man who was reportedly drunk persisted on going back to his burning home to retrieve some money before dawn Monday in Quezon City. He never got out of it again. Firefighters recovered the charred remains of Allan Billones, 35, from a room of a three-storey house on 139 Halcon St. in La Loma. The hourlong blaze began at the same house owned by a certain Maria Luisa Retulla. Investigator Fire Officer 2 Sherwin Peñafiel said the fire started at 1:38 a.m. from the second-floor room that Billones rented. The cause of the fire was still not known as of press time. Peñafiel said Billones, who reportedly had a few drinks, fled his unit as the blaze started to spread. But the victim insisted on going back to the burning house to retrieve his money. The fire damaged five other houses before it was put out at around 2:50 a.m.—Julie M. Aurelio

Manila police eye link between 2 slay cases

Manila homicide investigators are looking into the possible link between the killing early this month of a school executive and the ambush-slay two years ago of an official of the same college. Police Officer 3 Alonzo Layugan, of the Manila Police District Homicide Section, told the Inquirer that both killings could have been triggered by internal politics at the Eulogio “Amang” Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology (Earist), one of many angles that police investigators are scrutinizing. The first incident involved Earist chief administration officer Alvin Asuncion who was shot and killed on April 14, 2010, in front of his wife by gunmen aboard an owner-type jeep along Araneta Avenue in Quezon City. Earist executive vice president Noel Cabrera was gunned down on May 11 by motorcycle-riding men while he was pulling out of the institute. Layugan pointed out that while they have not yet determined the motive behind the two killings, it was possible that the same person masterminded them.—Jeannette I. Andrade and Julliane de Jesus, trainee

Cosmetics firm office ransacked by burglars

Burglars broke into a branch office of a cosmetics firm in

Manila over the weekend and fled with electronic equipment and appliances worth more than P130,000. Senior Police Officer 3 Dionilo Cinco, of the Manila Police District Theft and Robbery section, said that the suspects ransacked the Splash direct sales office at the Gabana building along Taft Avenue in Malate. Investigation showed that the thieves could have struck between 7:30 p.m. of Saturday and 10:30 p.m. of Sunday. Vanessa Mabilangan, branch operations manager, told police that the burglary was only discovered late Sunday night when the guard on duty discovered the doors to the office forced open. The stolen items include desktop and laptop computers, rice dispensers and cordless kettles.—Julliane de Jesus, trainee