Condo owner arrives today

MANILA, Philippines - Mariane Cayton, owner of unit 501 in Two Serendra condominium that was hit by an explosion on May 31, will arrive today from the US to help in the investigation of the incident.

Lawyer Raymund Fortun said Cayton would visit Angelito San Juan, their injured family friend and tenant of the condo unit. San Juan is still in the intensive care unit of the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

Fortun added Cayton would then see Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II to help investigators piece together the incidents leading to the explosion that left San Juan severely injured and three others dead.

San Juan, 63, is showing signs of recovery.

Fortun, legal counsel of Cayton, said San Juan is “getting better,” although doctors are still concerned about his lung functions and oxygen intake, which he said was fluctuating.

“They cannot proceed with further treatments until his lung function is stable,” Fortun told The STAR.

Fortun earlier defended San Juan following the announcement made by Roxas that the injured tenant is a “person of interest” in the investigation of the explosion.

“He was only here as a transient. As far as I am concerned, he is a victim,” Fortun said.

Fortun described San Juan as a family friend of the Caytons who only came to the country to attend a wedding.

Fortun said San Juan works as a data architect for a car manufacturer based in California.

San Juan left the Philippines in 1982 for the US. His last visit to the Philippines was in February last year, Fortun said.

“He was supposed to be here only for a day to attend a wedding. 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,” Fortun explained.

Fortun added San Juan complained of suffocation on May 31 or just before the explosion occurred since the condo unit did not have electricity.

According to Fortun, San Juan had a lunch meeting outside before returning to the unit later in the afternoon.

“When he entered the condo unit, there was no electricity… as you can expect for a unit that was closed with no air conditioning (it was too hot) when he entered and complained (to the management of the Serendra) that he felt being suffocated inside,” he said.

Fortun said power was restored at about 6 p.m., some two hours before the explosion.

Authorities could not say what caused the blast that ripped through the condominium unit, killing three people in a van that was hit by debris and injuring five others.

Looking for the leak

Investigators are looking into the possibility of gas leak that triggered the explosion.

Fortun, however, asserted that it would be premature to conclude that the explosion was caused by a gas leak.

He said unit 501 was being renovated at the time of explosion.

“The renovation was the expansion of the unit from one-bedroom to two-bedroom unit. All works with the approval of the Serendra management,” Fortun added.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) sent a letter to Bonifacio Gas Corp., the supplier of piped gas for establishments at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, to provide inputs on the possible reasons behind the explosion.

Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said Bonifacio Gas operates an underground pipeline network that provides a centralized gas distribution system within Global City.

Fort Bonifacio Development Corp. tapped Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. as the joint venture partner in Bonifacio Gas because of its expertise in piped gas installations in the Philippines.

Petilla said the energy department is not doing any investigation since the DILG is the lead agency in the probe.

“We cannot have several agencies investigating the incident, otherwise it will be chaos. The lead agency is DILG. What DILG is doing is to employ independent forensic experts rather than rely on explanations given by local parties involved,” Petilla said.

Industry players, for their part, have offered their assistance to the investigation.

Isla LPG chief operating officer Ramon del Rosario said they are assisting the government in the probe. –Iris Gonzales