Alexi “Leki” Aquilino, first year student of #UPDiliman, wanted to be a social worker and had enrolled at the UP College of Social Work and Community Development

Alexi “Leki” Aquilino, first year student of U.P. Diliman, wanted to be a social worker and had enrolled at the UP College of Social Work and Community Development

Because she was a U.P. student, i searched all the news reports to find out why she burned to death Feb. 9, 2022 in a fire in Krus na Ligas, a community straddling the south corner of the UP campus.

Based on witnesses’ account, even before the fire started, there was a commotion from inside the bedroom of the student and her mother. Then, she was heard shouting, “Tulong! Tulong! Hindi ako makalabas! Gusto ko pang mabuhay! Tulong! (Help! I’m trapped inside! I still want to live! Help!). A minute after that, fire broke out from inside the bedroom. She continued shouting for help. A neighbor tried to get near their door but could not break the door open so he climbed up the roof but found that the window had iron bars so she could not be rescued. Then he said he saw the student fall to the floor. The smoke got too thick, then nothing could be heard from her again. Firefighters put out the fire in a few minutes but were downhearted to find the bodies of the mother and daughter charred beyond recognition. The owner of the boarding house said in an interview that a few weeks earlier, she (the owner) had been calling up the student’s father to transfer the mother and daughter out of the boarding house because the mother had become quarrelsome with two other female boarders. The owner had given them only up to the 15th of the month to vacate the bedroom they were renting. Mother and daughter have been renting the room for six months. According to other neighbors, whenever they saw the mother, she was sullen, seated silent and not able to talk, and they thought she might be suffering from depression and other mental health issues. The fire started from inside the locked bedroom — there was no fire in any other part of the house or outside.
The links of the news reports are pasted below.
Her name was Alexi “Leki” Aquilino, 17 years old, first year student of the U.P. Diliman College of Social Work and Community Development — loved dearly by schoolmates, orgmates, the faculty and staff.