Metro Briefs: June 24, 2019

6 killed in Caloocan City fire caused by unattended candle

MANILA, Philippines — Six people, five of them children, were killed in a fire caused by an unattended candle that broke out in Bagong Silang, Caloocan City, on Sunday.

Supt. Stephen Requina, city fire marshal, identified the fatalities as Maricel Roxas, 33, her children Robert, 10; Langoy, 4; JP, 2, and Niño, 3 months old; and her nephew, Edwardo, 8.0

Only one of her sons, Benedict, 13, survived although he suffered second degree burns.

“I asked him if he tried waking them [victims] up. The survivor said he did but they wouldn’t get up,” Requina said.

The fire broke out in the victims’ house on Phase 8, Barangay 176, at 2:45 a.m.

The family was asleep and had left a candle burning because there was no electricity.

No other houses were affected by the blaze which was put out at 3:27 a.m. —Aie Balagtas See

Drugs eyed in ex-Taguig cop’s slay in Pasay City

MANILA, Philippines — His previous alleged involvement in illegal drugs was being eyed as a motive in the killing of a former policeman in Pasay City on Saturday.

Darwin Cruzin, 44, had just boarded a tricycle from his house on Tramo Street when he was shot by two men on a motorcycle near the corner of Arnaiz Avenue and P. Zamora Street around 3:45 p.m.

Despite the fact that the shooting happened in a busy area, nobody was able to identify the suspects who escaped.

Operatives recovered a slug fired from a .45-caliber pistol at the crime scene.

Maj. Wilfredo Sangel, Pasay police investigation chief, said that they were looking at drugs or “personal vendetta” as possible motives for the killing of the victim.

Cruzin was with the Taguig police until his dismissal from the service after his arrest in November 2012 in a drug bust. —Dexter Cabalza