Filipino landlord removes house roof during rainstorm as 'pregnant tenant was unable to pay rent'

Filipino landlord removes house roof during rainstorm as 'pregnant tenant was unable to pay rent'

A cruel landlord allegedly removed a struggling tenant's roof during a rainstorm after she was unable to pay rent due to the coronavirus downturn.

Footage shows the pregnant mother-of-one, Princess Remuraran, 20, frantically salvaging her belongings from the rain in Caloocan City, the Philippines, on May 22.

Concerned neighbours gathered to help Teresita carry her clothes and valuables.

She was getting drenched in the tropical storm while helping her small two-year-old child.

A workman, allegedly hired by the landlady, was also shown on the roof to do the demolition while people are still inside the house.

Resident, Czairra Alliyah Cheng, who was helping the struggling five-months pregnant woman said that her husband was stranded in another city and unable to work because of the coronavirus Covid-19 quarantine so they had accumulated unpaid rent.

Czairra said: ''I can't believe that the property owner could be so cruel.

Everybody is struggling.

It was such a spiteful thing to do to remove the roof.'' The government earlier announced that rents should be deferred during the coronavirus quarantine to ease the burden of the affected families struggling financially during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Czairra and her neighbours are now continuing to help the woman to file charges against the landlady for failing to follow such guidelines.

Czairra added: "My rental fee is up to date and I don't have any problem with my rent but as a neighbour of the poor family, I cannot bare to see them like that.'' Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has warned landlords in his last speech against ''pressuring'' their tenants to pay for residential rent amid the coronavirus pandemic, saying that he would even ''go against the law'' to protect them.