Another Lapu Lapu Festival victim has come forward, saying he feels failed by the system after the tragedy.

Blaine Redlac, 29, was hit on his right leg and thrown up to 10 metres when a vehicle plowed through the festival in Vancouver on April 26.

He also lost his high school sweetheart, 27-year-old Jendhel May Sico, in the tragedy.

She was the cousin of AJ Sico, who suffered a traumatic brain injury, along with multiple broken bones and nerve damage to his right eye.

Eleven people were killed in the tragedy and dozens were injured.

Redlac has mobility issues and is still off work. He told Global News that dealing with MSP coverage and ICBC has been time-consuming and frustrating.

“I’m so confused how this falls under the no-fault policy,” Redlac said of ICBC. “We’re in the same category as a fender bender victim.”

The enhanced care model was introduced by ICBC in 2021 and has faced complaints in the past.

B.C. Premier David Eby said at an event on Monday that there is a lot the government and ICBC can learn from the Lapu Lapu Festival tragedy.

“I know that questions have been raised about where donations went, making sure that they went to victims’ families instead of to other places,” Eby said. “We’re working with United Way to address those concerns.

“With respect to ICBC, we know the system isn’t perfect, that it needs improvement. It’s a lot better than it was. We’re talking about more than double the amount of money that would have been available under the old system, going to victims to support them in different ways.”

Eby said that almost $4 million has been given in support for victims, including rehabilitation support, victim services and supporting almost 100 people with counselling across B.C.

He added that it is also a good time to do a five-year review of ICBC.

“It’s a new system,” Eby said. “It’s been working for five years. It’s kept rates stable for British Columbians. We have now some of the lowest car insurance rates in the country. We went from having some of the highest rates in the county. Parts of it are working really well. Parts that are not.”

Redlac said he is lucky he has such a strong support network, as he has no idea how he would cope otherwise.

He has found therapy in music, writing and performing songs about his beloved Jendhel.

Redlac said he also has concerns about how donations were prioritized by Filipino BC, United Way and all grant recipients.

Full breakdown of the Lapu Lapu tragedy donations and where the money went

“I hope they exhaust those funds to go to the people that currently need them now… if there’s any available… because as far as those art circles and all of the stuff they did, none of us, my sister, didn’t know any of that was going on,” he said.

“To Filipino BC, United Way, and all grant recipients. I recognize you can say within your right, you followed the rules of the grant, but what I am saying right now, that this money was used at the expense of victims like AJ Sico, receiving time-sensitive, life-altering care.

“Any funds still available from any of the organizations shall be exhausted to the victims who need the funds now.”

The president and CEO of United Way of British Columbia defended the 45 grants that were handed out, after more than $2 million in donations poured in.

Michael McKnight said he can’t speak to everyone’s expectation of where the donated money was going to go.

“I think we communicated in our solicitation to the community the type of work that United Way does,” he said in an interview last week.

“For the last 97 years, United Way has been working with community-based organizations to support social service needs. So it’s consistent with what we’ve done for the last 96 years. And our role in supporting community is about community well-being.”

Redlac is also calling for Filipino BC to scrap plans for a festival next month.

“We’re not there,” he said. “The community is not there.”

Redlac says his healing journey is only just beginning. He is determined to honour his partner’s legacy and expose gaps in the system so future victims of tragedy won’t feel abandoned by their government.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The family of a young man severely injured in the Lapu Lapu Festival tragedy says they are not getting the help or the financial support they expected.

“These last 10 months have probably been the absolute worst 10 months of my entire life,” Vanessa Hill, AJ Sico’s girlfriend, told Global News.

Sico suffered a traumatic brain injury, along with multiple broken bones and nerve damage to his right eye, when an SUV drove into the crowd at the Filipino festival on April 26, killing 11 people and injuring more than two dozen others.

He also suffered a massive stroke after his brain injury.

His cousin, 27-year-old Jendhel May Sico, was one of the people killed in the incident.

Sico, 30, is now non-verbal and unable to walk.

“Dealing with things with AJ, everything has been a struggle for us,” Hill said.

“Always, we’re trying to get him the best medical care, the best things to help in his recovery, but we’ve always been met with red tape every step of the way.

“I don’t want to have to be reaching out to the media to be able to get things for AJ to facilitate his healing and like his recovery, but unfortunately, that’s the only way we’ve been able to be heard.”

Hill said it feels like a slap in the face.

“Everybody thinks that the money raised went directly to the victims, and unfortunately, that’s not what happened.”

Following the tragedy last year, United Way BC launched the Kapwa Strong Fund to help everyone affected begin the process of healing.

The Kapwa Strong Fund raised more than $2 million, a large portion of which, $1,574,556.04, went towards grants to 36 agencies.

Here is a breakdown of how that money was distributed to agencies and its intended use.

Hill told Global News that when Sico was first injured, they stayed at the Holiday Inn near Vancouver General Hospital so they could be there for support and to sign off on the surgeries he needed.

“A place like the Holiday Inn, you can’t stay there for a long time,” she said.

“And so we told Filipino BC, ‘Hey, we don’t need anything fancy, we just want somewhere close to stay.’.

“And I was continually told, ‘Don’t worry about it, like the funding isn’t going to run out for you guys.’. And unfortunately, at the end of the 90 days, they gave us an invoice and said, ‘That’s the extent of our help we can help you with.”

Hill said they received an email saying that Filipino BC had a 90-day policy of being able to help victims and that it had already been extended for them.

“We had so much paperwork that we had to get through in order to get anything from them,” she added.

“It was a lot more work than it was helpful, on top of grieving his cousin Jendhel at the same time.”

Hill said they do not feel like Sico has received any substantial help from Filipino BC.

“We were invoiced $40,000 from them, which is kind of hilarious, because on that invoice, they charged us for things like utensils, forks and spoons, chairs at that place we stayed at, and then we didn’t keep those forks and spoons,” she said.

“They paid for three months of his tube feeding formula, and I would say honestly, that and the housing was the most helpful thing they did, and that was about it.”

Hill said she understands that Filipino BC is not supposed to be a long-term support fund, but thinks they do have a responsibility to the victims, as the Lapu Lapu event was organized and facilitated by them and they received the biggest grant from the United Way Kapwa Strong Fund.

According to Filipino BC’s reports, $451,570 has been earmarked for it from the Kapwa Strong Fund. United Way said those funds were raised at the request of donors.

Chair of Filipino BC, RJ Aquino, told Global News that they have talked to Sico’s family and addressed their concerns directly and discreetly.

“I’m not going to speak publicly about those details,” he said.

“They can continue to speak about those details as much as they want, and they have every right to, but we know that we’re trying to do the right thing that, you know, we’ve, again in the aftermath of all of this, nobody else was in a position to do the things that these victims and families have needed, but we’ve tried to put ourselves in a position to at least highlight the gaps and help them navigate the system.”

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Aquino said many organizations have directly dispersed money to victims and families, but Filipino BC must maintain a high level of oversight and transparency over where the money is being spent and used.

“I would say again, the frustration stems from the fact that they’re not getting the help that they need,” Aquino added.

“They’re not, they didn’t get the help that they needed right away, and they’re still not getting the help that they need. So we’re calling on, again, all levels of government to do that. We’ve, you know, we’ve done everything organizationally to try to keep everything transparent and have published our impact report.”

Aquino also said that they have recently assigned an auditor to maintain oversight of their funds and expenditures.

The Canadian Red Cross had raised more than $400,000.

Hill said they received $10,000, most of which went to pay for family members to travel to the Lower Mainland to attend the cousin’s funeral.

For now, Sico’s family is worried about their financial situation and getting AJ the best care they can.

Jhosie Sico, AJ’s mother, told Global News that her son helped the family pay for their home and they are now worried they might lose it.

“We don’t want to lose our house,” she said.

“So the money that we’re getting is not enough, but I still have to pay the rent that he’s supposed to be getting from his income, but he doesn’t have income anymore.”

Jhosie said that they did receive help in the few months following the tragedy, but they feel abandoned now.

“We’re still struggling, and we’re still a victim, but where’s all the money that’s supposed to be helping us?”

She said, adding insult to injury, she was blindsided when she learned Filipino BC is organizing another Lapu Lapu Day Festival.

“There’s a lot of way to make healing or to celebrate, maybe there’s a prayer or something, but not to the extent of the music, dancing and whatever that they want to do,” she said.

Aquino had previously told Global News they had consulted victims.

But Hill questioned whether sending an email a few days before Christmas was considered consultation.

She said it is too early to have another Lapu Lapu Day Festival, adding they need time to heal.

“To hear that another event is going to be put on, in the face of us asking them for help over and over again, is a slap in the face. It’s like we don’t matter,” she said.

Ten months after the horrific mass killing at the Lapu Lapu Day Block Party in Vancouver, there is a clearer picture of how the donation money was spent, while also raising concerns.

“Breaks my heart, makes me feel angry, all the emotions, because that money was intended to help us victims,” said Alejandro Samper.

His father, Daniel, mother, Glitza, and sister, Glitza, were among the 11 people killed when an SUV plowed through the festival near the food trucks.

In Filipino B.C.’s Crisis Response Impact report, it shows United Way BC raised over $2 million following the tragedy.

A large majority of it, $1.57 million, was designated to the Kapwa Strong Fund, which distributed 45 grants to 36 agencies.

Nearly a quarter of the total funds, $451,470, was earmarked to support the work of Filipino BC. United Way said some donors had specified that’s where they wanted their money to be directed.

Samper is calling on Filipino BC to be more open with how it is spending the donation money, saying that, as the festival organizer, it is partially to blame for the tragedy that happened.

“They’re not being transparent,” he said. “They’re hiding stuff that we don’t they don’t want us to know, like their endowment funds,” Samper said.

Of the 36 agencies that received grants through United Way’s Kapwa Strong Fund, the United Filipino Canadian Association of BC received the highest amount, totalling $165,000.

United Way’s report shows many of the agencies used the grants to offer mental health supports and host healing circles. UFCABC is the only non-profit that provides financial aid.

Clifford Belgica, program director of UFCABC, said some examples of how the money has been used are paying for accommodation close to the hospital or rent relief.

“Get some funds in their hands as a respite,” he said, adding that so far, the group has helped 77 victims, but there are still many more waiting for aid.

“We have 88 more victims, we were told, ‘Oh, there’s no more funding because it’s been uploaded to Filipino BC for an endowment fund.’ And I said, ‘What’s an endowment fund?’”

RJ Aquino, chair of Filipino BC, said the endowment fund is money from people who donate directly to Filipino BC, not through United Way’s Kapwa Strong Fund.

Aquino said his organization still hasn’t received the full amount from the Kapwa fund.

“Filipino BC has not received the full disbursement of it, because we still need to apply for those disbursements in order to receive them, and that’s where we outline how that’s going to be distributed to the people under our care,” he explained.

A media manager with the group later clarified that of the $451,570, Filipino BC has only received $190,000 so far.

Aquino said he understands people’s frustrations and calls for transparency, highlighting how it illustrates the larger systemic issues that are allowing people to fall through the cracks.

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“They didn’t get the help that they needed right away, and they’re still not getting the help that they need. So we’re calling on, again, all levels of government to do that,” Aquino said.

“We were festival organizers one day and a crisis response team the next, and that’s not something that we were originally built for.”

At a press conference earlier this month, when Aquino revealed the location of its future community centre, he explained how the community centre would be funded.

“Filipino BC has done a lot of work to also establish an endowment fund to help with funding this centre,” Aquino said at the time.

The interim PR manager later told Global News the endowment fund is currently at $38,479.

This caught Samper’s attention, as he grew concerned about how the donation money meant for victims was being used.

“It’s very sad and heartbreaking to see they’re taking advantage of this money from United Way that belongs to the victims and their families to just fuel their own agendas, their own community center,” he said.

Aquino is adamant that none of the money intended for victims is being used for any other purpose.

“None of the funds that are being directed to victims are going towards the center. None of the funds that are being directed to victims are going towards paying Filipino BC staff,” he said.

Samper is calling for an audit of how the funds are being used.

Aquino said an auditor was recently hired from one of the big four accounting firms.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

A man who lost his family to the Lapu Lapu tragedy is questioning how the money that was donated to the victims is being spent.

Alejandro Samper’s mother, Glitza, his father, Daniel, and his sister, Glitza, were killed after a vehicle rammed a crowd at the Lapu Lapu Festival in Vancouver on April 26, 2025.

Samper, 34, wasn’t at the festival with them, as he was about to start work.

Eleven people were killed in total.

The United Way of BC published a report this month that stated it has distributed more than $1.5 million in the form of 45 grants following the deadly charity.

But Samper said that he feels angry about what has happened.

“There’s been not a lot of support from this organization, so we’re just wondering where all this money went,” he said.

“It breaks my heart, makes me feel angry, all the emotions, because that money was intended to help us victims.”

The report stated that the majority of the fundraising, more than half a million dollars, went toward mental health supports.

In addition, seven grants totalling roughly $235,000 were spent on healing circles; ten agencies received a total of $200,000 on art therapy; and the rest went to miscellaneous items, such as $30,000 to refurbish a basketball court with the colours of the Filipino flag and youth camps.

“I never heard of any counselling sessions offered to me,” Samper said.

“And I’m Latino, so if I didn’t receive any of this, I’m sure, no, the other victims didn’t receive any counselling sessions. Healing group? Like it’s just a mystery.”

Samper said he would like to see a breakdown of how much counsellors received and who received the sessions because he said it’s all a lie.

Despite multiple requests, United Way BC declined to do an interview, but in an emailed statement, CEO Michael McKnight said the grants go towards supporting immediate and long-term needs.

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“Every dollar United Way BC raised in response to the tragedy has gone – and will go –toward supporting the community through registered charities, non-profit programs and community organizations, a practice that adheres to our charitable purpose and Canada Revenue Agency guidelines,” he wrote.

An organization called Latincouver received $55,000 in grants.

Details show that it used almost $15,000 for a health and wellness booth over two days at its Carnaval De Sol in July.

Paola Murillo, founder of the organization, told Global News that the booth reached about 500 people and visitors were sharing messages of support for the Lapu Lapu victims.

“It’s not just for a booth,” she said.

“It’s also for the facilitators. It’s for all the healing, the people that was there, it’s marketing, more brochures that we have to do, website that you need to do, extra cost that we have to put.”

But Samper said something like that is irrelevant to the victims.

“We don’t want to go to another crowded event,” he said.

“And that’s where she claims most of the money went to — how many of the victims of this tragedy attended this festival? No, nobody. Nobody wants to go to this festival, like you know, experience a crowded event.”

Latincouver held several resilience gatherings and healing circles, spending more than $10,000.

Murillo said they had to pay for the activities and the space to hold these events.

“So we bring facilitators, we put our food, we bring the community together, so all of that has an extra expense,” she added.

Murillo also said the grant money is used and is allowed to be used to pay salaries.

But Samper said he is left with more questions than answers in his search for accountability and transparency.

“That doesn’t help me,” he said.

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In the aftermath of the deadly Lapu Lapu tragedy last April, dozens of people were rushed to hospitals to receive care.

Now, an investigation from B.C. Information and Privacy Commissioner Michael Harvey has found that 71 snooping incidents by 36 health-care workers happened, meaning their medical records were accessed without permission.

“When I say snooping, what I mean is the unauthorized access of a patient file by someone who doesn’t need to have access to it,” Harvey said.

Half of the patients treated after Lapu Lapu had their privacy breached, 16 in total.

The breaches happened across the Fraser Health, Vancouver Coastal Health and the Provincial Health Services Authorities and within Providence Health Care.

“We were obviously quite concerned once we learned about the extent of this, of this snooping, and so I launched an investigation,” Harvey said.

The report found that most of the access was driven by curiosity and some employees opened multiple files a day.

According to the report, those employees faced discipline ranging from suspensions to terminations and some were reported to their regulatory colleges.

“To misuse that access is the betrayal of trust, and so we need to take this issue very, very seriously,” Harvey said.

Two health authorities initially argued that patients didn’t need to be told their privacy had been breached, but the commissioner disagreed.

“I think the concern was, do we need to harm them again by telling them something that they don’t need to know?” Harvey asked.

“But I think the conversation that we had with the health authorities about what people have a right to know was a very useful conversation to have.”

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On April 26, the day of the tragedy, the report shows that the first breaches occurred.

Within days, audits began, confidential flags were added to files and memos were sent reminding staff about privacy.

By April 30, the first breach was reported to the commissioner’s office.

“It is a tremendous violation of a person’s privacy,” Harvey said.

“Health information, health records, are confidential and must remain that way. There is no excuse for this behaviour.”

The commissioner found safeguards were in place, but were not strong enough.

The report made nine recommendations, including clearer privacy training, real-time monitoring and discipline strong enough to deter snooping.

In a joint statement, the health authorities called these breaches “unacceptable” and “inexcusable” and said collectively they have accepted all recommendations in the report.

“This — this kind of activity, this kind of action — really violates that trust,” B.C. Health Minister Josie Osbourne said.

“It’s important for us to rebuild it. That’s why I take the report so seriously.”

The commissioner says that intentional snooping is not a chronic issue, but in an era of digital records and high-profile tragedies, protecting patient privacy is more critical than ever.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.