Man burns live-in partner over laundry

ANGELES CITY — For refusing to do the laundry, a 19-year-old bar girl, reportedly three months’ pregnant, suffered third-degree burns on her face, legs and other parts of the body, at the hands of her live-in partner.

Dionicia Quidor is now in critical condition at the Jose Reyes Memorial Hospital in Manila after her live-in partner, Howard Ruit, doused her with gasoline and then ignited it last Tuesday afternoon inside their home in Barangay Balibago here.

Ruit, now detained, said he got irritated when Quidor ignored him when he asked her to wash their dirty clothes which had piled up for a week.

"I just had too many problems with my uncles and aunties, and the unwashed clothes merely aggravated my problems," he told reporters in Tagalog.

He claimed he just wanted to scare her off when he doused her with gasoline. When she dared him to ignite her gas-drenched skirt, he said he lighted a match stick. It was the second match stick though that set her on fire.

Ruit said it was all an accident, claiming that he put out the fire by stamping the flames with a pillow and wrapping Quidor with a blanket.

Ruit said he is willing to face the consequences of his misdeed, and will continue to love Quidor and stand by her.