Ex-general’s wife, daughter die in fire

MANILA, Philippines - The wife and daughter of retired police general Ismael Rafanan were found dead after a fire broke out at their home in Barangay Batasan Hills, Quezon City yesterday morning.

Meril, 69, and Stharra, 27, died of suffocation, said city fire marshal Superintendent Jesus Fernandez.

Their charred remains were found by firefighters in their respective bedrooms on the second floor of the two-story house in Capitol Estate II after the fire was put out around 30 minutes after it started just before 8 a.m.

Retired general Ismael Rafanan

The housemaid told police that she heard an explosion coming from the master’s bedroom, where Meril was sleeping, prompting her to run out of the house and seek assistance from the subdivision’s security officers.

Fernandez said the blaze started in the ceiling of bedroom where Meril was sleeping.

Fire officials are looking at electrical short circuit as the cause of the fire but it is still under further investigation.

The fire, which reached the third alarm, caused around P1 million in damages, Fernandez said.

Meril (left) and Stharra in happier times

Rafanan and his close friends and relatives, including outgoing Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency chief Arturo Cacdac, rushed to the house after hearing about the fire.

Quezon City Police District Station 6 said that on weekends, Rafanan would go to his farm in Pangasinan and there were only three people in the house at the time the fire broke out.

Rafanan was among nine “euro generals” charged with graft before the Sandiganbayan in 2014, six years after one of them was caught carrying 108,000 euros at a Russian airport in 2008.

According to the Office of the Ombudsman, the money was sourced from confidential and intelligence funds of the Philippine National Police. However, the use of these funds as the police delegates’ travel allowance and contingency fund is prohibited under the Revised Penal Code.