Fire razed three vehicles owned by a suspended mayor in the Province of Antique, and other members of his family.

According to Ernesto Tajanlangit III, the suspended mayor of Tobias Fornier town, one of his workers heard an explosion at around 1 a.m. on Sunday, September 22, 2024.

When the worker checked the garage, he saw that the vehicles were on fire.

The destroyed vehicles cost reportedly an estimated P12 million.

Tajanlangit suspected that the fire was set on purpose. He said that the cars were all in good running condition.

Following the incident, Tobias Fornier Fire Station created a special team to determine if the fire sparked accidentally or was done on purpose.

Meanwhile, Tobias Fornier Municipal Police Station said they will wait for the result of the investigation of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) before they start their own probe. There is no CCTV camera where the incident occurred.

The mayor is placed under a six-month preventive suspension by the Office of the Ombudsman. The suspension is in relation to an incident in April 2024 between him and his vice mayor. A CCTV footage showed Tajanlangit punching Vice Mayor Jose Ma. Fornier after a squabble on the distribution of family food packs to residents affected by the El Niño phenomenon.

Tajanlangit received a copy of the decision in the second week of September 2024.