CALL center agent Ma. Charmaine Caberte, one of those who died in the fire in Barangay Capitol Site Thursday dawn, was not pregnant, her family said yesterday.
Dr. Carmencita Fernan, the mother-in-law of Charmaine’s sister Charisse, corrected reports in local newspapers that Ma. Charmaine, 35, was with child.
Ma. Charmaine, her son Miguel Paulo, 15, and her father Rolando, 63, and their helper Alma de la Torre were burned beyond recognition when fire broke out in their apartment on Don Pedro Rodriguez St. at past 3 a.m.
Dr. Rene Cam, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 medico legal officer, said the remains of Ma. Charmaine are “too charred” for standard tests.
And there is no way to confirm if one of those who died was pregnant, he said.
“We could only do cursory examination in the autopsy and the report that I am preparing will not contain a lot,” he said in an interview yesterday.
NBI 7 Director Medardo de Lemos said he will wait for Cam’s formal autopsy report before taking action.
The NBI was able to confirm the identities of all the deceased.
Ma. Charmaine was identified through a pendant that bore her nickname.
Fernan said Ma. Charmaine did not have a boyfriend and had always had gone home straight from work.
As a single mother, Ma. Charmaine devoted all her time to her son and her family.
“She was a good girl. She wasn’t the party type,” Fernan said.
Ma. Charmaine, she said, only enjoyed eating out or going to church with the family.
When her mother Shiela was in Cebu, Ma. Charmaine would drive her to different locations for errands.
The victim could not also be mistaken as pregnant since she was slim and was fond of wearing trendy clothes. (CYR/KNR)