By Rowena Papasin (Guest Writer)
Retired hospital care aide Jhosie Sico and her mother were visiting one of her sisters in Burnaby last April 26, 2025, when she got an urgent call from her sister-in-law, Jenny de Guzman, a little past 8 p.m.
Jenny and her husband Rodel were at the Lapu-Lapu festival in Vancouver that day, along with her daughters Jendhel May Sico and Maydhel Ann Sico, Jendhel’s fiance Blaine Redlack, and her daughters’ cousin AJ Sico, Jhosie’s son. Ten minutes after Jenny, Rodel and Ann left the event site, they got a call from Redlack who told them something had happened.
When Jhosie answered her phone, she remembers Jenny telling her, “May nangyari dito. Si Kuya and Ate May, I don’t know where they are (Something happened here. Kuya [big brother, AJ] and Ate [big sister] May, I don’t know where they are).”
Jhosie said they turned on their television and that’s when they heard about the tragic incident at the Lapu-Lapu festival.
Jhosie later learned that AJ, Jendhel and her boyfriend, along with three members of the Samper family, were waiting for their food near a food truck when the car-ramming attack happened. The three members of the Samper family – father Daniel Samper, mother Glitza Maria Calcedo, and daughter Glitza Daniela Samper, along with 27-year old Jendhel — were among the 11 who died in the horrific incident.
AJ was among the seriously injured who were rushed to the Vancouver General Hospital. Jhosie said the next few days were a blur, with her son undergoing extensive surgeries. She said AJ had multiple injuries, including fractured ribs and broken legs, lacerated liver and kidney trauma. He also had brain injury and nerve damage to his right eye. Jhosie said AJ also suffered a stroke while he was in surgery.
It was after his surgeries that one of the doctors at VGH advised Jhosie to decide what to do with AJ. Jhosie recalled the doctor saying to her “You better decide now for him. When are you going to decide? Did you think AJ will like what he’s going to see once he gets, once he wakes up?”
The doctor advised them to consider MAID or medical assistance in dying. But she held steadfast in her faith that her son will pull through and rejected the doctor’s dire pronouncement. Through prayers, and the continuous loving care of their family and his girlfriend, Vanessa Hill, they proved the doctor wrong, and AJ is now slowly making progress.
Cool Kuya
Adrian Jonez Sico, or AJ as his family and friends call him, has been like a big brother to his cousins and even to his friends.
Jhosie said her son and his cousin Jendhel May were older than their cousins, so the younger ones looked up to them. She said, “Si AJ ang pinaka-kuya and si May ang pinaka-ate (AJ is the big brother and May is the big sister).”
She said his cousins had a lot of respect for AJ. “May isa siyang salita, sinusunod nila. May authority yung anak ko (He says one word, and they all follow. My son has authority over them.).”
One of his friends, Diego Tameses, also described AJ as everybody’s big brother. He said that AJ is “very energetic and loud. I think he had what I like to call a very ‘kuya’ (big brother) vibe”.
“He was a leader, man-of-the-house type of person, but he was also very youthful at the same time. So, he knew what his responsibilities were, but at the same time, he knew when to let loose, have a good time.”
His mother also said that her 30-year-old son acted as the head of their big extended family, the one they can rely on to solve their problems. Before the accident, AJ promised a cousin who was about to graduate from high school that he would help him plan his future. Without AJ’s guidance now, Josie feels that her nephew now seems a little bit lost.
Before the tragic event on April 26, AJ was working as a barber at Haides barbershop in Surrey. Jhosie said AJ had a lot of other jobs after graduating from high school but she saw that her son looked the happiest as a barber. After Lapu-Lapu, Jhosie said some of AJ’s clients, who have also become his friends, even visited him at the hospital.
Jhosie said it was also her son’s wish to keep their family home in Surrey, which had 11 rooms and was home to the whole family. He did not want to sell their home and reassured his aunts and uncles that they can live there until they grow old. He promised them that he would never bring them to a nursing home.
AJ was renting one of the downstairs suites in the family home and Jhosie said this was a great mortgage helper. But because of his injuries from the Lapu-Lapu attack, AJ may no longer be able to work and pay his rent.
Filipino BC’s help for AJ
Josie shared that Filipino BC, which organized the festival, made sure that they had a place to stay when AJ was still in the hospital. For a time, the organization got them a room at a Holiday Inn, but AJ’s girlfriend, Vanessa Hill, was concerned that the money for the hotel bill would have been better spent if it was used instead to pay for the family’s daily needs. Filipino BC then rented a place for them at West 14th Avenue in Vancouver, so that they need not go back and forth to Surrey while caring for AJ at the hospital.
However, Filipino BC told them that after 90 days, they will no longer be able to give financial support to victims, so the group urged the Sicos to begin making long-term sustainable housing plans.
Jhosie said, “Sa ngayon wala na kaming nakukuha o wala ng tulong na nabibigay sa amin [from Filipino BC] (We’re no longer receiving any help from Filipino BC).”
They were able to get some support from [provincial auto insurer] ICBC, but AJ’s girlfriend said that the insurance will not cover his total rehabilitation. Hill said that it takes them a lot of work to transport AJ back and forth to his rehab session but “they only really allow an hour’s session that they will cover”. She stressed AJ needs not just an hour but a longer session.
Hill added that AJ needs neurological support too as he suffered severe brain injury and stroke. “Unfortunately, a lot of that is just, what we find, is not covered by ICBC. So that’s one of the challenges that we’re facing.”
AJ’s mother said they also applied for disability, Canada Pension Plan and other benefits for her son but their applications were denied. Jhosie shared that they are also struggling to pay for their mortgage and other daily expenses and they truly appreciate every little bit of help given them by well-meaning groups, like the Bayanihan Community Centre in Victoria.
Jhosie said they also received financial help from the Canadian Red Cross, Surrey Philippine Independence Day Society, and United Filipino Canadian Associations in BC. They have also written to other organizations to ask for financial support, including the Archdiocese of Vancouver, but got no reply.
Still, she is grateful for the help that they have received. “Nagpapasalamat ako na napakaraming nagmahahal sa anak ko (I am grateful for the love that so many others have shown to my son),” Jhosie said.
Jendhel May’s family wants answers about Lapu-Lapu funds
The family of AJ’s cousin, Jendhel May Sico, continues to mourn the loss of their loved one. Maydhel Ann, Jendhel’s sister, said they got a bit of help from Filipino BC in the beginning but not much else.
Ann said, “My parents received $300 for groceries and then I got a $100 compass card so I can take the bus so we could, like, go to the cemetery to visit our sister. That’s all the help.”
She said Filipino BC has not reached out to them and they are also hesitant to ask, noting “It was always difficult to even ask for help with all the questions that they’d ask or just all the requirements that they would have us provide them”.
“It just kind of made it difficult to even ask for help,” Ann said.
She also said the organizers of the Lapu-Lapu festival should not make it harder for the grieving families to ask for help. Ann said Filipino BC should “take more accountability for everything that they organized. To just even ask for anything, making it harder to even ask for help when that’s what they say they’re supposed to be doing.”
Ann is also joining the calls for Filipino BC to be more transparent on how the donations that it received were used.
“Really, it makes no sense to us that there’s a capacity that they have to just give a small amount to each family, when it was told that they received so much more than everyone’s been receiving. And so it’s kind of just interesting to see… It would be interesting to see where their money is really going and why they aren’t able to help as much as they claim,” Ann said.
Miraculous recovery
Jhosie is glad that her son is doing well with his rehabilitation. Eight months after the horrific incident, the devoted mom is happy to report. “Maganda na recovery niya, nakakatayo-tayo na siya through physiotherapy na tulong at saka he’s getting better. Maraming na siyang progress na nagagawa ngayon. Napakalaki na ng progress niya for the last few months na pag ano niya ng therapy (His recovery is going well, he is able to stand a bit with the help of physiotherapy and he’s getting better. He has progressed a lot in the last few months of his therapy).”
Hill, AJ’s girlfriend of almost five years, has stayed by his side this whole time, along with their friends, Diego Tameses and Jerus Caparas.
Tameses and Caparas marveled at AJ’s progress. Caparas described his friend’s recovery as “miraculous” and Tameses noted that it was like going from black to white in a short time.
Caparas said he’s “very grateful to see the state that he’s in right now, and I’m excited to see the state that he’s going to be in another six months”.
In fact, AJ improved so much that they no longer needed a machine to transfer him from his bed to his wheelchair. Because of this, Jhosie was able to bring AJ home for Christmas and New Year.
Hill believes AJ will make a complete recovery in due time. “He’s going to be 100 percent healed miraculously, like, we’re believing for a complete miracle, and I think God is already moving so much in his life… It’s going to happen.”
Justice for all victims
Jhosie is urging other victims of the Lapu-Lapu tragedy to speak out and let everyone know about their struggles. “Sana magsalita, mag-open ano din sila para naman malaman ng mga tao na talagang hindi naman supportado ang lahat ng naging bikima (I hope they will also open up so that people will know that many of the victims were not supported).”
Jhosie clarified that she has spoken out about their difficulties, not only because they need help, but also because they want justice for all the victims of the Lapu-Lapu tragedy.
(Editor’s note: This story was first published on January 16, 2026 by CanadianFilipino.Net as part of its “Healing Through Kapwa: A Storytelling and Solidarity Series for the Filipino Community” project.)
ReyFort Media 
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