MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the City Prosecutor of Makati City has dismissed a string of complaints filed against the companions of Christine Dacera, the flight attendant who was found dead in a hotel room on New Year’s Day of 2021.
The OCP of Makati City also junked the raps filed by Christine’s companions against Dacera’s mother and local police, the DOJ said.
With this development, all cases linked to Dacera’s death have been dismissed. Justice Undersecretary Emmeline Aglipay-Villar told reporters: “The cases mentioned in the briefer are the only cases involving Christine Dacera.”
Police reports said Dacera, 23, was found dead in a hotel bathtub in Makati after a New Year's Eve party with friends. She was rushed to the hospital but was pronounced dead.
In April 2021, the Makati prosecution also junked the complaint of rape with homicide filed against Dacera’s companions.
Dacera’s companions
In a statement on Monday, the DOJ said the prosecution cleared Dacera’s companions of the administering, and attempt to deliver, illegal drugs as filed by the National Bureau of Investigation.
The department said there was no proof that drugs were administered to Dacera as she tested negative on the presence of dangerous drugs. The second drug rap was junked due to the absence of corpus delicti, the drugs itself, which was not submitted to the prosecutors.
The prosecution also absolved Dacera’s companions and their lawyer Neptali Maroto of obstruction of justice since “they were simply protecting their rights within the bounds of law,” the briefer from DOJ read.
It also junked the falsification complaint against PMaj. Michael Nick Sarmiento, Philippine National Police medico-legal officer, as it held that he merely relied on available evidence.
The complaint of perjury filed against three people was also junked “based on the absence of showing that the alleged false statements pertaining to the use of party drugs at the hotel are material to the investigation of Dacera’s death and alleged rape.”
The prosecution also threw out the complaint of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide against four of Dacera’s companions due to the absence of proof that they were recklessly imprudent for not bringing Dacera to immediate medical attention that caused her death.
“Evidence suggested that respondents performed CPR immediately upon noticing Dacera’s perilous state and sought help from the hotel lobby,” the DOJ statement also read.
Raps vs Christine’s mother, family lawyer
The Makati prosecutor’s office also cleared Christine’s mother, Sharon of a complaints of illegal detention, arbitrary detention, unlawful arrest, perjury, libel, slander, cyberlibel and incriminating innocent person, intriguing against honor and malicious prosecution.
On the complaint of illegal detention, arbitrary detention and unlawful arrest, the Makati prosecution also junked the raps against two police members and two other individuals.
The DOJ said the prosecution found that the cops effected the warrantless arrest believing that a crime has just been committed, while Sharon and the two other private individuals were absolved since there was no evidence that they control or directed the police to detain Dacera’s companions.
On the complaint alleging intriguing against honor and malicious prosecution, the Makati prosection said that the filing of the criminal complaints against Dacera’s companions “is not intriguing against honor as it was based on the pieces of evidence gathered during the investigation of the case.”
“The mere act of submitting a case to the authorities, on one hand, is not tantamount to the crime of malicious prosecution,” the DOJ added.