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Cavite residential fire’s cause was highly suspicious- fisherfolk group

Bettina Baysic
Nov 14, 2020
2 min read

FIRE OR FOE. Fisherfolk community in Bacoor, Cavite suffered a “suspicious” fire that affected hundreds of families forcing them to evacuate quickly on November 1, 2020.

After a fire that ravaged more than 700 homes in Bacoor, Cavite affected the fishing livelihood of the coastal communities, a fisherman’s organization called the cause of the blaze to be “highly suspicious”.

The Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) Spokesperson for Southern Tagalog, Ronnel Arambulo, speculated something fishy about the November 1 incident that displaced 1,641 Barangay Alima and Barangay Sineguelasan residents.

The aforementioned barangays sit on a 320-hectare reclamation project that may disrupt the growing mangroves in the southern side of Manila Bay.

Arambulo remarked at least three reported cases from 2017 and 2018 of blazes destroying communities within areas being reclaimed by the local government.

“We don’t buy the usual fire accident narrative anymore because it has been established that setting a community on fire is the easiest, most acceptable, and effective way to demolish an entire community to pave way for projects for development aggression,” the spokesperson declared.

Additionally, Pamalakaya National Chairperson Fernando Hicap has since appealed to the Cavite Province Governor Jonvic Remulla and the environment department to deter nearly 700 fishing and urban poor families who may be forced to leave the communities.

The lawmaker had asked the government body to go over the project's environment compliance certificate as it "will be building on the buffer zone of this protected area and destroy the landscape in which the wetland now thrives."

LGU fire report

Although the fire reached 4th alarm, there were no reported fatalities because most of the residents had been evacuated earlier in response to the anticipated Super Typhoon Rolly, the Bacoor City Bureau of Fire Protection City noted.

The bureau later concluded on November 10 that the cause of the fire was "an electrical ignition due to the loose connection which immediately set fire to the roof of (the house of) Mr. Julio H. Talay" which was made of nipa.

The evacuees are now taking shelter in St. Micheal Institute, Bacoor Elementary School, Alima Elementary School, Sineguelasan Elementary School, Alima Senior High School and Jesus is Lord chapel in Alima.