Arson suspect yields

CEBU CITY — The man widely suspected of having caused the early Tuesday fire that razed more than 200 houses in Alaska Mambaling here tried to kill himself with a knife, had second thoughts and then decided to give himself up to the police.

Meanwhile, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is studying the case of Armando Bangcal, the alleged drug dependent who perished in the fire because he had been chained inside his room, to see if charges can be filed against his parents.

Gregorio Unabia surrendered to the police on Wednesday in Carcar, some 40 kilometers south of this city, where he fled to escape what he feared was a lynching mob.

City policemen later came to pick him up and were expected to file charges of arson against him yesterday.

Unabia denied setting afire his own house and that of his next-door neighbor.

He also denied having attacked and wounded with a knife the son-in-law of his neighbor and his three-month-old daughter.

The city council has placed Alaska Mambaling under a state of calamity.

The fire razed an estimated P800,000 worth of property. — Ryan Borinaga/ Freeman News Service