One of the wounded in the Two Serendra blast earlier declared as “person of interest” in the case is still unavailable for investigation because of his injuries.
Angelito San Juan, a tenant of Unit 501-B where the blast occurred, is still at the intensive care unit of the St. Luke’s Medical Center at Bonifacio Global City and may need to undergo skin grafting.
This was according to Raymond Fortun, lawyer of Marianne Cayton, owner of the unit where family friend San Juan had stayed.
Cayton, who is based in California, recently cried foul over Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II’s “person of interest” tag on San Juan, saying the latter should be treated as victim and not looked upon with suspicion. Cayton vowed to fly to Manila to help in the investigation and help San Juan clear his name.
Three people died in the explosion while four - including San Juan - were hurt.
“He’s still not off medication. He still cannot be removed from the ICU. If they are going to change the dressing of his burns, they have to do it inside the ICU instead of the operating room,” Fortun said.
“I have been asking the doctors for information on when he can be available so that the authorities can already subject him to investigation. I’m still waiting for word. I don’t know if it is a few days from now, a week, 10 days. It all depends if he will be able to recover sufficiently from his injuries in order to be up and about, get himself out from the hospital bed, and able to answer questions intelligently,” said Fortun.
Fortun earlier said San Juan sustained second degree burns on 85 percent of his body. Fortun also said San Juan cannot talk because three tubes are attached to his mouth.
“The most he can do is make hand signals. Personally, I have not spoken to him,” he said. “He is subject to a lot of infection, he is in a lot of pain. You can expect that the doctors will be very careful about his handling,” he said.
Fortun also reiterated the Cayton family’s appeal to authorities to stop describing San Juan as a “person of interest” in the incident.
“I understand why the authorities had called Mr. San Juan as a person of interest because of the lack of information on him,” he said. “Mr. San Juan is a victim of this tragedy and should be considered as such unless and until there is additional information that could be obtained to the contrary.”