Lawmaker wants boarding houses safe

ANGELES CITY — Representative Carmelo Lazatin (first district, Pampanga) said Saturday that he is batting for an ordinance that would address the problem on security of boarding houses and apartments in this city.

Lazatin’s statement came as Dannielle Huet Conde, a member of Holy Angel University’s Taekwondo team, here was stabbed to death by a lone suspect at her apartment in Barangay Santo Cristo recently.

Conde sustained stab wounds on her right upper chest leading to her death.

Lazatin, through his political officer Irish Calaguas, said the safety of boarding houses should be a community effort.

Calaguas said that the safety of boarding houses could start from putting grills on windows of boarding houses and implementing safety regulations and house rules.

It was found out that there is no effective coordination and monitoring of boarding houses or city ordinance mandating strict parameters to keep boarding houses safe.

She added that the recent killings should prompt local officials to do more in keeping boarding houses safe.

In 2009, Keith Valerio Ballesteros, 16, a former nursing student of Angeles University Foundation, was also stabbed to death in her boarding house in Barangay Salapungan also in this city. The suspects are still at large.