Hit-and-run victim passes away; family asks for help

He did not have superhuman strength or lightning-fast reflexes but Alexander Luistro, a former barangay chair of Ayao-Ilao in Batangas province, rarely turned people down when they came to him for help.

This time, however, his family is asking for help for Luistro as his sister, Edna Luistro Manlugon, appealed to anyone who could provide the police with information that would lead to the identification of the vehicle which struck the victim on Wednesday morning in Makati City.

Authorities have yet to determine the plate number of the blue car, possibly a 1992 Toyota or Nissan, whose driver escaped.

Luistro passed away yesterday after his family decided to turn off the life support system that had kept him alive after he underwent surgery for bleeding in the brain at Makati Medical Center.

As their relatives flew into the country yesterday to pay their respects to the victim, Manlugon said that their family was still trying to come to terms with the fact that her brother was gone.

Luistro sustained massive head injuries when he was thrown several meters away after he was struck by the blue car at the corner of Ayala Avenue and V. A. Rufino Street.

He was accompanying a couple who had asked him for help to a travel agency in Makati City.

With the pedestrian underpass still closed at 6:30 a.m., the victim and his friends opted to cross on the pedestrian lane. They had yet to reach the center island when the blue car which, according to the police, was traveling at 80 kph, hit the victim. Witnesses said the driver did not even slow down but just continued on his way.

Those with any information about the vehicle in the hit-and-run accident may call PO2 Marte Caesar P. Bueno of the Makati Traffic Bureau at 8999007.