Inhalers, teeth grinding: Concert deaths probe asks actress, 5 more

The National Bureau of Investigation has started gathering eyewitness accounts to establish whether the party drugs that caused the death of five people in a recent open-air concert in Pasay City were sold at the venue itself, a key factor that would determine criminal liability on the part of the event organizers.

An NBI agent privy to the probe said the bureau had sent out invitations to individuals who had stated publicly that they were at the Closeup Forever Summer concert.

Among them were actress Alma Concepcion and her lawyer Py Caunan, who appeared at the NBI’s Death Investigation Division on Thursday to submit statements on what they saw at the May 21 event, which they earlier posted on their Facebook pages.

Speaking to reporters, Concepcion, who attended the concert with her son, became emotional as she recalled seeing how a girl lost consciousness a few meters from where she stood. In her Facebook post, the beauty queen said the girl suddenly grew stiff while reaching out to her boyfriend.

“They didn’t look like they were drunk,” Concepcion said at the NBI, adding that the whole scene frightened her. “It was my first time to attend a rave party and I was surprised by what the young people there were doing. I’d do anything to protect my child from drugs.”

ALMA Concepcion at the NBI on Thursday Richard A. Reyes

But she said she found the security measures to be “tight” since their belongings were inspected twice before they were allowed to enter the venue.

Some concertgoers behaved strangely, as though high on drugs, and “kept using this inhaler and were wearing dark masks,” Caunan said. “They were also using pacifiers” apparently because they were grinding their teeth, she added.

Also on Thursday, four more people related to Bianca Fontejon, one of the five fatalities, went to the NBI also to submit their statements: Fontejon’s parents, and her boyfriend and his father. They all refused to talk to the media.

The NBI has obtained a list of at least 56 bouncers who were hired for the event and are now being asked by the bureau to give their own accounts, the Inquirer learned.

Closeup management earlier said it organized the concert together with Eventscape Manila and Activations Advertising.