Metro Manila — The National Bureau of Investigation on Friday recommended the filing of criminal charges against people tagged in the death of flight attendant Christine Dacera.
Some of Dacera’s friends, including their legal counsel Neptali Maroto, are among those who may have to deal with criminal charges.
According to CNN Philippines, the NBI-Death and Investigation Division recommended filing an obstruction of justice charge against Mark Rosales, Rommel Galido, John Dela Serna, Gregorio De Guzman, Jezreel Rapinan, Alain Chen, Reymay Englis, who partied with Dacera at the City Garden Hotel in Poblacion, Makati City to welcome the New Year.
The NBI also recommended charges of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide against Dela Serna, Rapinan, Chen, and Louie De Lima.
Defending the recommendation to file reckless imprudence resulting in homicide charges, Zulikha Marie Conales-Degamo, an agent of the NBI-DID, said in a virtual briefing on Friday that Dacera was already complaining of a headache and kept on vomiting, and yet “the occupants of room 2209 failed to observe these details.”
“You did not intend to kill anybody, but your omission to give the proper prudence and diligence required of you in that time and place, you failed to give that? You are liable under the law,” she said.
The NBI said in a virtual briefing it also recommended charges of perjury and obstruction of justice against Darwin Macalla, an occupant of 2207 who was also in the room of Dacera for some time.
Southern Police District medico-legal officer Michael Nick Sarmiento may also face charges for falsification of an official document.
Contrary to Sarmiento’s medico-legal report, the NBI said they only found “healed lacerations”, not fresh abrasion on Dacera’s labia.
Sarmiento also conducted embalming on Dacera without the consent of her family even before an initial autopsy was done by the police.
According to the NBI, Dacera’s cause of death was “consistent” with the findings of the Philippine National Police, which is a ruptured aortic aneurysm.
The NBI stressed that no one knows when the aorta will rupture but noted that taking illegal drugs may trigger increased blood pressure and heart rate.
NBI spokesperson Ferdinand Lavin in the presser said the investigation found that illegal drugs were used during the New Year’s Eve party in Makati City.
“The incidence in the early morning of January 1, it is very consistent with the cause of death. She was already feeling numbness sa arm niya, it is already an indication of a possible attack. May headache din siya (she also had a headache),” Lavin said.
“What’s clear here is the interplay of drugs and alcohol,” he added.
Degamo said NBI’s charges are backed by a medical opinion discussing the relationship between the intake of illegal drugs and the aortic aneurysm.
Asked if the rape case angle is already ruled out, Lavin said: “We cannot prove the fact of rape.”
Source: CNN PHILIPPINES