MANILA, Philippines — Flight attendant Christine Dacera would have told her companions if she had been raped, three respondents in the case said Friday.
“When we transferred her over our room, we took care of her, she just kept on vomiting. If she was raped, she would have let us know what happened to her,” said Valentine Rosales in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel.
Clark Rapinan seconded Rosales’ statement and said: “Sasabihin niya po ‘yun.”
(She would have told us that.)
Rapinan recalled that Dacera had already been vomiting in a separate room at a hotel in Makati City where they celebrated New Year’s Eve and where she was later found unconscious in a bathtub.
Dacera was with her friends in room 2209, but partied with another group staying in room 2207.
“That was one time na pinuntahan siya ni I think JP [Dela Serna] para kunin kasi nagsuka na siya sa kabilang room. Pagbalik ni Tin sa room, doon na siya nagsasabi na masakit ulo niya, nasusuka siya,” Rapinan said.
(That was one time that JP went to the other room because she vomited there. When she came back, she was telling us of her headache and she kept on vomiting.)
Rommel Galido, also a respondent in the case and a friend of Dacera, said the flight attendant would have also told him if something had happened to her.
“Knowing Christine as my closest friend, na halos lahat ng ginagawa niya sinasabi niya sa’kin, for sure kung mayroong ginawa ang kabila, sasabihin niya sa’kin,” Galido said in the same interview, referring to the people staying at the hotel room adjacent to theirs.
(Knowing Christine as my closest friend who tells me almost everything that happens to her, for sure she would have told me if the people from the other room did something to her.)
Galido said Dacera was still breathing at 10 a.m. on New Year’s Day. But upon checking on her at 12 noon, her lips were already purplish and she had no pulse.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) claims that Dacera was raped and then killed.
But the Makati City Prosecutor’s Office tossed the provisional charges of rape with homicide against 11 men back to the Makati City police for further investigation.
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