Robbers torch condo unit to elude cops; 1 dead, 3 hurt

A WOMAN died and three other persons were hospitalized early Tuesday in Parañaque City after robbers broke into a condo unit, fired at the security guards who discovered them, and eluded the responding policemen by setting the unit ablaze.

Firefighters found Rolina Acloan, a 34-year-old school teacher, unconscious by the stairs leading to the fifth floor of Berlin Building of Kassel Residences on E. Rodriguez Avenue. Acloan, who apparently suffocated from the thick smoke, was later declared dead on arrival at Parañaque Doctors Hospital.

Nine-year-old Rustom Cruz, another building occupant, was also found unconscious on the fourth floor and remained confined in the hospital. One of the responding policemen, 48-year-old SPO4 Charlie Bayuca, also lost consciousness in the smoke-filled building.

The police said two robbers broke into and later torched the unoccupied Unit 403. Acloan and Cruz were residents who had rushed out of the other units.

According to Senior Supt. Ariel Andrade, the city’s chief of police, the robbers’ presence was discovered by Allan John Daradana and a fellow guard just before 1 a.m. at Unit 403, which was already burglarized three weeks ago.

But before the guards could do anything, the robbers opened fire. When Daradana was hit in the hip, his partner immediately called the Parañaque police for help.

A responding team of four policemen, including Bayuca, positioned themselves outside the condo unit and tried to talk to the robbers whom they assumed to be still inside, but received no response.

The standoff lasted for about two hours until thick smoke started to come out of Unit 403. “The suspects deliberately set the unit on fire to create a diversion,” Andrade said.

The policemen ended up assisting residents who had to be evacuated. At least 16 more officers arrived to help Bayuca’s team.

“If we did not do that, other lives may have been affected,” the police chief said.

It remained unclear how the robbers got out the building during the fire, as Andrade insisted that his men blocked all possible exit points. “It is possible that the suspects pretended to be residents of the building and casually walked out (during the evacuation),” he said.

Damage was confined to Unit 403 but the fire lasted until 6 a.m. before it was declared out.