Christine Dacera: Suspect claims all men at NYE party were gay and had 'no reason' to rape and murder flight attendant
One of the 11 men accused in the rape and murder of 23-year-old Christine Angelica Dacera recently opened up and said that he couldn't find any reason why her friends, including him, would want to harm her because the men partying with her on New Year's Eve — the day before she was found unconscious in an empty bathtub of a hotel room in the Philippines — were gay.
"Every one of them was gay. My impression of her is she likes to hang out with us, LGBT members. She's comfortable with us. The entire time she was really comfortable with every one of us," Gregorio de Guzman, one of the men who was at the party and accused of gang rape, told ABS-CBN's TeleRadyo, adding that everybody loved and "cherished" Dacera.
Dacera and her friends were celebrating New Year's Eve at the hotel. The Philippine Airlines attendant was declared dead after being taken to the hospital with "lacerations and sperm in her genitalia". There were scratches all over her arms and legs and bruises all over her body. Of the 11 charged, "only three were Dacera’s friends. The others were practically strangers to her... they were only known to her three friends," Heavy noted.
Philippine National Police Chief Director Debold Sinas said that apart from Galida (29), John Pascual Dela Serna III (27) and John Paul Reyes Halili (25) have also been taken into police custody.
De Guzman, who is the son of Filipino singer Claire dela Fuente, said that the reported statement of the Makati police chief claiming that "gays are still men, especially if they're intoxicated" was not true. "For me, I've never had sexual relations with a woman. I've never been aroused by a woman. Always a man. Many can testify to that," he said. He has earlier said that he just started to know Dacera on that fateful New Year's Eve celebration.
Manila Metro police chief Police Brigadier General Vicente Danao Jr announced, "If you have nothing to hide, then for sure I would advise you to voluntarily surrender yourselves in the police station. In case you are scared to surrender by yourselves, you can bring your lawyers with you," and stressed again how that there was no need to be scared if they did not have anything to hide.
Sinas said that authorities were looking for eight other people who were with Dacera at the hotel on the night before her death. A copy of the initial medico-legal report obtained by CNN Philippines indicated multiple contusions and abrasions. The cause of death was a "ruptured aortic aneurysm". The family's lawyers said the scene of the crime officer's medical examination did not include some of Dacera's injuries.
"We are disputing the findings of the SOCO, 'yung post-mortem report na they claimed the cause of death was aneurysm," said Paolo Tuliao, one of the Dacera family's lawyers, in a press briefing. "They didn't specify sa report 'yung mga hematoma, 'yung mga bruises that were found on the victim's body, that's why we (sought) another post-mortem report from an independent medico-legal."
The Dacera family spokesperson Brick Reyes said the results of the latest autopsy may be available by Wednesday, January 6. "They said she died of natural causes, a ruptured aortic aneurysm which appears in the certificate of death, but which does not include the other injuries she sustained," said Reyes. "It is not complete as far as we are concerned, that is why we requested for another autopsy."