FILIPINO-AMERICAN rapper Apl.de.ap yesterday said he is shocked by the car ramming attack at a Filipino street party in Vancouver, Canada where he had just performed, leaving 11 people dead.
The Black Eyed Peas founding member said he and fellow BEP touring member J Rey Soul had just finishing performing at the Lapu Lapu Festival in in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood “and left the stage minutes before it happened.”
“It’s hard to describe the shock and the heaviness we feel… Our hearts are broken for the victims, their families, and everyone affected by the tragedy at the Lapu-Lapu Festival,” he said.
Apl thanked everyone who had checked in and urged people to “keep the victims, their families, and the organizers in your prayers.”
Filipino-American comedian Jo Koy also issued a statement, saying he was heartbroken to hear about what happened in the Vancouver Filipino Festival.
“This is supposed to be an event that honors and celebrates our beautiful culture, and now we’re mourning the loss of 11 lives that were taken too soon. My heart goes out to everyone that was affected by this horrific event. Mahal kita,” he said.
At least 11 people were killed after an SUV plowed into the street festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century.
Footage posted online and verified by AFP shows the vehicle with a damaged hood parked on a street littered with debris, meters from first aid crews tending to people lying on the ground.
Eyewitness Dale Selipe told the Vancouver Sun that she saw injured children on the street after the vehicle rammed into the crowd.
Festival security guard Jen Idaba-Castaneto told a local news site that she saw bodies everywhere.
Gina Jamoralin, Philippine Consul General of Vancouver, said the driver in the car attack is a 30-year-old man from Vancouver with a history of mental health issues, according to police.
The Canadian government has not confirmed if the fatalities in the attack were Filipino but “there is large likelihood [that there are] Filipinos,” the Consul General said.
The official said the Lapu Lapu Day Festival was an initiative of a Cebuano association in Canada starting last year. The Vancouver government had earlier designated April 27 as Lapu Lapu Day but the festival was held a day earlier so as not to overlap with a marathon scheduled on the 27th. (ABS-CBN News/with reports from Agence France-Presse)
