Six killed in QC fire; arson eyed

A heated argument overheard by neighbors, an apartment door locked from the outside, and a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinder left in the living room.

A combination of these factors prompted arson investigators to launch a manhunt yesterday for Philip Lustre, journalist turned media consultant of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, after a fire that engulfed an apartment he was renting in Quezon City left six people dead.

Killed were Violeta Robles, 26, with whom Lustre has a five-year-old daughter; his first cousin Veronica Roxas, 33, and her children, 15-year-old twins Mira and Mara, 11-year-old Junjun and six-year-old AC.

Lustre told The STAR yesterday he was looking for a lawyer and would surrender today. "I’m really innocent. I cannot imagine doing that," he said. "I’m really devastated right now."

He conceded, however, that circumstantial evidence and neighbors’ testimonies could implicate him in the deaths.

Lustre may also have some explaining to do in the case of Roxas, the daughter of his maternal aunt who was adopted by his mother when Roxas was seven years old.

Roxas was being hunted by the Antipolo police as an accomplice in the murder of a Korean. Jo Pok Sik, 56, was killed in an ambush on Dec. 29 last year as he was leaving his home in Antipolo City.

The victim’s driver told police that Roxas and her husband, Sae Kyo Park, 53, wanted Sik killed so Park could take over the victim’s business. Park, who managed Sik’s Kun Kang Development Inc., was arrested last Aug. 1 at his house in Cainta, Rizal.

On Friday night Roxas and her children visited Lustre at the Lyceum of the Philippines in Manila, where he teaches journalism, and sought his help.

"She was very scared. She said some people were tailing her. It seemed there were some drug syndicates involved," Lustre said in a telephone interview.

Since they grew up together as siblings, he decided to help her. Lustre brought Roxas and her children to a dinner in Manila where Interior Secretary Jose Lina Jr. was expected to attend. Lustre said Roxas and her Korean husband were complaining that they were being framed up for the murder. Lina told Roxas to go to the police and clear her name.

Because Roxas refused to go home, Lustre brought her and her children to the home of Robles, on 54-H Malakas st., Barangay Pinyahan. It was near midnight.

Frequent fights

The unit occupied the western corner of the five-door, two-level apartment row that is reached through an alley. A neighbor, Imelda Valdez, saw Lustre arrive, but she did not mention his companions.

"I saw him enter the gate as I was throwing out the garbage," Valdez said. "He even greeted me."

Lustre said his affair with Robles was over but they remained friends. He had taken their daughter Patricia, called Tutti by neighbors, to his native Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya where she is currently a first grader.

Robles, a nursing graduate of the Far Eastern University, was looking for a job, possibly abroad, Lustre said, adding they were set to move out of the apartment.

Reggie Cornejo, son of apartment administrator Arthur Cornejo, said Lustre and Robles moved in early last year but had been unable to pay rent for almost a year. Arthur, 55, who lived next door to Robles, said Lustre visited the apartment at least twice a week, arriving near midnight or early in the morning.

"They couldn’t even pay their electricity bills regularly," Reggie said, adding that his father had filed an ejectment suit against Lustre.

Neighbors said they often overheard the couple quarreling. A neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said he was awakened at around 4 a.m. and heard the couple fighting anew. Used to the fights, the neighbor shrugged it off.

A blood-curdling scream

At 6:30 a.m., however, another sound came out of Apartment 54-H.

"She (Violeta) wasn’t asking for help. It was like a scream of despair and deep hurt. Parang nananaghoy. Ngayon lang ako nakarining ng ganoong sigaw. Nakakakilabot," Arthur Cornejo said.

By then smoke and flames were coming out of the apartment unit. A neighbor rushed out and tried in vain to kick down the double-lock door.

Firemen put out the fire about an hour later. Inspector Samuel Tadeo of the Bureau of Fire Protection’s Fire District II said investigators found the LPG tank with its valve open and the escaping gas still bursting in flames.

In the front bedroom on the second floor, Robles’ remains were found next to the air conditioner, which had been pried out of its wall opening in an apparent attempt to escape. The remains of the other victims were in the other bedroom.

Reggie Cornejo, one of the first to enter the house after the fire was put out, found many of the couple’s belongings on the first floor, apparently in preparation for moving out.

Cornejo’s father Arthur said that at around 3 a.m., he had gone out as he usually did to check if the gate to the apartment complex was locked. He said he saw Lustre’s Mazda sedan parked outside.

‘Not in my wildest imagination’

Lustre, however, said he left the apartment shortly after 2 a.m.

He said that after arriving at the apartment with Roxas and her children, he proceeded to buy them dinner. Robles joined him and demanded to know what Roxas and the children were doing there.

This was probably the argument the neighbors overheard, he said.

"I was too tired to explain (to Robles)," Lustre said. "It had been a long day for me."

He took Robles with him to the Ocho Pares on Scout Borromeo where he bought barbecue. Upon returning to the apartment, only Roxas and one of the twins remained awake for the dinner.

Lustre remembered the LPG cylinder by the front door. It was empty and Robles wanted him to buy another, but it was too late. Lustre recalled that the cylinder appeared to have a defective valve because its contents were used up quickly.

He surmised that 11-year-old Junjun, who had a mental defect, might have awakened early and played with the valve. Junjun’s remains, however, were found on the second floor.

"I admit if they go by circumstantial factors, I’m trapped," Lustre said. "But those were Beng, my cousin or sister and her children. I cannot in conscience do that. Not even in my wildest imagination." – With Non Alquitran, Cecille Suerte Felipe