MANILA, Philippines — The Makati City police filed with the prosecutor’s office on Monday a provisional charge of rape with homicide against 11 men for the death of a flight attendant on New Year’s Day.
The unconscious Christine Angelica Dacera, 23, of General Santos City, was found in an empty bathtub of a hotel room where she and some friends celebrated New Year’s eve. She was later declared dead at a hospital.
Makati City police chief Col. Harold Depositar told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that a provisional charge of rape with homicide was filed Monday against 11 persons who were with Dacera, occupying two adjacent hotel rooms in Makati City, at the time of her death.
Depositar said the charge filed was provisional as the prosecutor’s office would be waiting for the autopsy findings and the toxicology report on Dacera which the Makati City police would submit on Tuesday.
He said that only three of the 11 respondents in the charge have surfaced while the others have made themselves scarce.
“Only three of them were Dacera’s friends. The others were practically strangers to her, as they were only known to her three friends,” Depositar noted, adding that everyone in that New Year’s party with Dacera was included in the charge.
Asked for the initial basis of the rape with homicide charge, Depositar said: “The victim had lacerations and sperm in her genitalia.” He added that there were also bruises, contusions, and scratches on her arms and legs.
He said that Dacera’s death may have initially been found to be natural – from an aneurysm –but there were apparently factors that contributed to it.
It was the Makati Medical Center that had informed the Makati City police of Dacera’s death on New Year’s Day. Three friends and hotel staff had rushed her to the hospital after finding her unconscious in an empty bathtub of their hotel room.