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MANILA, Philippines — Fourteen families or 70 people were left homeless when a fire broke out at a neighborhood in Sta. Ana, Manila yesterday.

The accused mastermind, police Supt. Rafael Dumlao of the AIDG, was cleared by Angeles City Regional Trial Court Judge Eda Dizon in June 2023, but the ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeals in July this year. The Supreme Court said the CA, in convicting Dumlao as the mastermind, found Dizon’s trial to be “a sham and an apparent mockery of the judicial process such that Dumlao’s acquittal was a foregone conclusion and in total disregard of the evidence.”

The fire could have started on the second floor of one of the houses along A. Francisco street in Barangay 790, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP)’s National Capital Region office said.

Aival Abiva, 27, suffered minor burns.

Fifteen BFP firetrucks and 20 others from volunteer groups helped extinguish the blaze.

Damage to property was placed at P1.2 million.lccplus