Roxas: Up to DOJ to determine liability for Serendra blast

MANILA, Philippines - It is up to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and other government agencies to determine who should be held liable for the explosion at Two Serendra condominium in Taguig City, Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas II said yesterday.

He said the final report on the fact-finding investigation into the May 31 blast will not name who will be held liable for the incident.

“Investigators are not lawyers but fire marshals, chemists and firemen. So whether (their findings) transmit to legal liability or not is for the DOJ to determine,” Roxas said during a briefing at Camp Crame.

He said what the report does contain is the “sequence of events” and the cause of the explosion.

Roxas earlier said the foreign experts are expected to submit the report on the blast in a week or two.

Four people were killed in the blast that rocked Two Serendra. Last July 4, Angelito San Juan, a tenant of Unit 501-B, died in a hospital while workers Jeffrey Umali, Marlon Bandiola, and Zallymar Natividad died shortly after the blast when their vehicle was crushed by a concrete slab that fell from the condominium unit.

A week later, investigators concluded that the explosion was caused by the combustion of a combination of gases, which apparently came from the gas piping system in the building.