Dacera case: Still no unedited CCTV footage of Makati hotel

MANILA, Philippines — Barely four weeks since the death of flight attendant Christine Dacera on January 1, Makati police probers have yet to submit a copy of the full and raw footage of her last moments inside a hotel in Makati.

Both the camps of respondents and the complainants have requested for a copy of the footage of City Garden Hotel where Dacera and her friends held a New Year’s soiree, in which she later expired after their revelry inside her rented room.

“The PNP [Philippine National Police] was required to submit raw and unedited footage because what they submitted was edited clips,” Lawyer Raymond Martelino, one of the legal counsels of the respondents, told reporters at the Makati City Hall, where the preliminary investigation for the case on Dacera’s death was held.

Martelino is the lawyer for respondent Rey Ingles, who also attended the New Year’s Day party where Dacera died. Ingles has yet to surface to the media.

Meanwhile, Attorney Brick Reyes, spokesman and one of the lawyers of the Dacera camp, questioned why lawmen could not provide the whole footage.

“We have been given [a] USB but not given DVR or the digital video recording, which contains the entire transcript of the CCTV during those days — Dec. 31 and Jan. 1,” Reyes said at the sidelines of the preliminary investigation on the case.

“So ang binigay sa amin splices of incidents, so maraming kulang. […] Sometimes we wonder why they are not divulging everything on the part of the hotel and Makati City Police Department,” he added.

(So what was given to us were splices of incidents which were insufficient. Sometimes we wonder why they are not divulging everything.)

The next hearing for the Dacera case was set on Feb. 3, where respondents will submit counter-affidavit to answer to police claims regarding the victim’s death.

EDV