Aquino says Taguig blast probe will be credible

President Aquino on Monday assured the public that the outcome of the investigation of Friday night’s explosion at the posh Two Serendra apartment building in Taguig City would stand “everyone’s scrutiny.”

The President brushed aside criticisms about the slow pace of the investigation, saying he had brought in the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to help the National Bureau of Investigation in the probe.

“My instruction to them starting from the time that I was there—I was the one who called the DPWH, the NBI and the Department of Science and Technology, and so many other agencies apart from the law enforcement agencies—is to come out with definitive findings that will withstand anybody’s scrutiny,” he told reporters in an interview in Malacañang.

The findings will be based on the evidence and a clear discussion of the circumstances surrounding the explosion, said Aquino, who went to the scene to supervise the initial response of police and civil defense agencies on Friday night.

The explosion blew off the walls of apartment 501B, sending a slab of concrete flying onto the street below and smashing into a passing delivery van, killing its driver and two crew members.

Five others were injured, including Angelito San Juan, who was leaving apartment 501B when the explosion ripped through the apartment building in Bonifacio Global City.

San Juan, who is under intensive care at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City, is a “person of interest,” not a suspect in the investigation, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said on Sunday.

Aquino said the government would take flak from critics whether the investigators quickly determined the cause of the explosion or they took time to find out what caused the blast.

“If the results are disclosed now, we’ll be accused of rushing the investigation instead of coming out with a thorough and scientific investigation. We’re used to critics who find fault in everything we do but we’re only after the truth,” he said.

Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson said his department had been tasked with “determining the structural integrity” of the building after the blast.

“We have only started,” he said.

Nothing to worry about

The Philippine National Police on Monday said foreign tourists had nothing to fear in the Philippines despite the deadly explosion.

Chief Supt. Generoso Cerbo Jr., PNP spokesman, said the explosion at Two Serendra was not linked to travel advisories issued separately by the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom on Saturday.

Cerbo said the travel advisories were confined to the Zamboanga peninsula and other parts of Mindanao. “We have not received information regarding any specific threats in Metro Manila,” he said.

“But PNP units are continuously monitoring threat groups. At present, the police intelligence community has not monitored any threats directed at foreign nationals or even local residents,” he said.

Roxas said the government was being careful about releasing information on the investigation because the incident might affect the country’s tourism industry.

But he assured the public that “this investigation will be very transparent because the people deserve nothing less.”

“There will be no cover-up. We will not hide anything from the public,” Roxas said.

Person of interest

The person of interest in the investigation, San Juan, can help explain what happened at Two Serendra.

San Juan, 63, was renting apartment 501B for nine days. A senior data architect working in the United States, he returned to the Philippines for the wedding of a high school classmate’s daughter in Manila.

About 16 hours after he arrived, an explosion ripped through the apartment he was renting from a friend, George Cayton, according to lawyer Raymond Fortun, who represents San Juan and the family of Cayton, which is engaged in the travel business and lives in the United States.

San Juan suffered second- and third-degree burns on 85 percent of his body, Fortun said.

Fortun told reporters that George Cayton’s daughter Marianne would be arriving in Manila in a few days “to shed light on the circumstances leading to the explosion.”—With reports from Marlon Ramos and Niña P. Calleja