Cadungog gone; house set on fire

Six unidentified men set on fire the house of Tejero, Cebu City Barangay Councilor Jessielou Cadungog Wednesday dawn, Nov. 14.

Cadungog, who is on leave for six months, and his family were not around when the men doused the house with gasoline and set it on fire.

The village councilor reportedly abandoned his property in Tejero shortly after the murder and attempted murder charges filed against him over the killing of a policeman were dropped last August.

Janis (real name withheld) woke her husband from his sleep after hearing neighbors shouting that the house of Cadungog was on fire.

Her husband grabbed the fire extinguisher, rushed outside and put out the fire that destroyed two condensers of air conditioning units. The fire started at 2:09 a.m. and they put it out three minutes later.

When they reviewed the monitor of their closed circuit television (CCTV) camera, Janis was stunned to see six men setting Cadungog’s abandoned three-story concrete house ablaze on U. Alviola St. in Tejero.

She felt fear at the time as the fire could have spread to other houses in the neighborhood.

“Nahadlok ko ining pagkahitabo (This scared me),” Janis said.

Cebu City Fire Marshal Noel Ababon said his investigator considered the incident as arson.

Ababon pegged the damage at P30,000. No one was injured.

Cadungog had been tagged by the police as a drug personality.

Cadungog and his driver, William Macaslang, were charged with murder for allegedly conniving to kill Police Officer 3 Eugene Calumba, and attempted murder for trying to kill Calumba’s companion Michael Banua, a civilian police asset, last July 30.