'Person of interest also a victim'
The US-based owner of the Serendra condominium unit where a deadly blast occurred Friday night decried the “person of interest” tag by Interior Secretary Mar Roxas on injured tenant Angelito San Juan.
“Mr. Angelito San Juan is a close friend of the family, and is also a victim here. We ask everyone for prayers for his speedy recovery,” Marianne Cayton, wife of unit owner George Cayton, said in a statement.
“We also ask the authorities to do their best to arrive at a comprehensive, impartial and fair investigation so that this tragedy will not be repeated in the future,” she said.
Lawyer Raymund Fortun read the statement in a press briefing yesterday at the hospital where San Juan is confined.
Fortun said Cayton, who is based in Anaheim, California, is set to come to Manila to answer questions regarding her condominium unit. San Juan remains at the intensive care unit of the St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC) in Global City, Taguig. He suered third degree burns in various parts of his body.
“On behalf of the Cayton family we would like to express our deepest sympathy to the families of the victims of this tragedy. We are equally devastated by damage that this has caused us,” Cayton’s statement read.
“We are simple people and this property was purchased through our hard-earned money with the desire to maintain our Filipino roots, traditions and culture even as we now live in the United States,” Cayton said.
“My children are traumatized by the images that they see on television and have begged me not to return to the Philippines, but I will be arriving in a few days to shed light on the circumstances leading to the explosion. Our family is committed in cooperating fully with the authorities,” she said.
Fortun also said San Juan deserves sympathy and not suspicion.
“He was only here as a transient. As far as I am concerned, he is a victim,” he said.
He said San Juan, a 63-yearold senior data architect based in California, came to the Philippines to attend a wedding in the Cayton family.
“He is an established professional. He has been in the country since May 31. He had barely spent 24 hours in the country and this thing happened. I can’t tell if he was about to leave the unit, had left it, or was still inside,” Fortun said in Filipino.
Fortun said San Juan left the Philippines in 1982 for the US. His last stay in the Philippines was in February last year, according to Fortun.
“He was supposed to be only here for a day to attend a wedding. He said he was given a leave of five days and he had used up the two weekends. His stay in Serendra was with the authorization of Serendra. He was given permission to go in and out of that unit for nine days only,” said Fortun.
Fortun also said San Juan complained of suocation on May 31 or just before the explosion as his unit did not have electricity.
“There were reports that Mr. San Juan had complained of suocation. Let me make this clear: at 1:15 p.m. San Juan just had lunch outside Serendra and upon his return there was no electricity,” he said.
He said ventilation in the unit may have become a problem due to the absence of airconditioning, prompting San Juan to complain. Fortun said power came back at about 6 p.m.
“It is still premature to conclude that he had this feeling of suocation due to gas leak,” Fortun said.
Fortun added that unit 501 was being renovated at the time of the explosion.
“The renovation was the expansion of the unit from onebedroom to two-bedroom unit. All works had the approval of the Serendra management and were about to finish,” Fortun added.
He also revealed that San Juan is sedated and that he had burns on 85 percent of his body.
“What I can say is that based on information supplied by his doctors, he has second degree burns... and that he is currently under observation and heavily sedated. We can’t talk to him,” he said.
Roxas earlier said investigators were getting San Juan’s profile from the Bureau of Immigration, but stressed he is not a suspect.
“There is no legal move against him. We are just interested in his story,” Roxas said. He said investigators have yet to talk to San Juan.
Initial reports said that the victim was seen leaving his unit when the blast occurred.