Police looking for nine suspects in death of flight attendant in Makati

January 5, 2021

Police are hunting for nine more suspects in the death of a 23-year old flight attendant whose body was found in the bathtub of a hotel room in Makati City on New Year’s Day.

Philippine National Police chief General Debold Sinas said three suspects named as John Pascual Dela Serna III, 27; Rommel Daluro Galido, 29; and John Paul Reyes Halili were charged for the crime of rape with homicide during inquest at the Makati City Prosecutor’s Office on Monday.

Sinas said police are looking for the nine who were with the victim, Christine Angelica Dacera, during her stay at the City Garden Hotel. They are Gregorio Angelo de Guzman, Louie de Lima, Clark Jezreel Rapinan, Rey Englis, Mark Anthony Rosales, Jammyr Cunanan, Valentine Rosales, a certain Ed Madrid and a certain Paul.

“All remain at-large and are now the subject of follow-up operations,” he said.

The other suspects will also face charges for rape with homicide.

Initial investigation showed that  Dacera, a PAL Express flight attendant, and the suspects celebrated the New Year’s Eve at the City Garden Hotel located at the corner of Makati and Kalayaan Avenues in Barangay Poblacion, Makati City.

Dacera  was found unconscious in the bathtub of her hotel room around 12:30 pm of January 1.

“Hotel staff performed CPR on the victim to revive her but failed, and later rushed her to the hospital where she was pronounced dead by doctors,” Sinas said.

According to Col. Harold Depositar, Makati police chief, the hospital’s initial findings is the victim died due to ruptured aortic aneurysm. However, he said these  were indication of foul play.

“She has bruises, has contusions on both knees and then she has abrasion… There is a long scratch… There is definitely sexual contact,” Depositar said in a TV interview.

“She was probably raped based on the wounds and because of that the result is she died on the process,” he said.

Depositar said Dacera was with her three flight attendant friends to celebrate the New Year’s Eve but her friends invited more people to join their party.

“They invited friends of friends, something like that... then they had a party starting at 10 (pm) or 11:30 (pm). It continues until the following morning,” Depositar.

“Based on our SOCO (scene of crime operatives) findings in the scene, there are bottles of whisky, vodka, various alcohol,” he added.

Depositar said a person is being eyed as the primary suspect after Dacera mentioned his name for spiking her drink. He did not mention his name.

“In the CCTV, it was also seen that Christine and the other guy transferred to another room and in the morning, they were drunk and brought Christine to her room,” Depositar said.

Depositar told the other suspects to appear to shed light on the incident.

Dacera's family, who lives in General Santos City, went to Manila after hearing the news.

In an interview with reporters, her mother, Sharon is seeking justice saying her daughter doesn’t deserve what happened to her.

Dacera’s mother said they were informed by their daughter that she will be attending a party with her workmates.

“Whoever did this to my daughter, I hope you rot in jail,” Sharon said.

“I don’t have any presumption that something will happen to my daughter because she is with her co-flight attendants,” she added.

She said her daughter’s friend is the one who informed them about the incident.

The Dacera family’s lawyer said the victim did not expect that there will be other people joining their celebration.

“She was supposed to be with friends and she was not supposed to be with strangers,”  Jose Ledda said.

Sinas assured the family of prompt and thorough investigation of the incident. Ella Dionisio/DMS