DOJ urged: Reverse ruling in milk tea poisoning case

MANILA, Philippines – The Manila Police District (MPD) and the families of three victims of milk tea poisoning asked the Department of Justice last week to reverse its ruling clearing a milk tea house owner’s son of charges.

The MPD, along with the relatives of Suzaine Dagohoy, her boyfriend Arnold Aydalla and milk tea house owner William Abrigo filed an 18-page petition for the DOJ to review the two counts of murder and one count of murder filed against Abrigo’s son, Kevin Lloyd.

Dagohoy and Abrigo died after drinking milk tea Abrigo prepared at his shop, the Ergo Cha milk tea house, while Aydalla was hospitalized.

The petitioners asked that assistant city prosecutor Dennis Aguila’s Aug. 24 resolution be reversed and set aside, saying that “the postulation of the… investigating prosecutor appears like a decision on the merits rather than of a finding of probable cause in a preliminary investigation.”

They accused Aguila of overlooking the pieces of evidence submitted.

Despite denials made by Lloyd, there are closed-circuit television videos and witness accounts that point to him as a suspect, the petitioners said.

The victims reportedly consumed large amounts of oxalic acid on April 9.

The petitioners said Lloyd was seen carrying what investigators believe was a container of oxalic acid into the shop the night before the incident.

They also said that after his father and the other victims were hospitalized, Lloyd went back to the store together with employee Joseph Garnacio.

He reportedly turned off the CCTV camera in the shop, asked the helper to throw away a foul-smelling substance – believed to have been oxalic acid – in a pitcher then washed the pitcher himself.