Crame tests: No drug trace on Rico

The autopsy conducted on matinee idol Rico Yan showed no trace of drugs and only a small amount of alcohol, the Philippine National Police (PNP) Crime Laboratory reiterated yesterday.

Chief Superintendent Marlowe Pedregosa, chief of the PNP Crime Laboratory, said two civilian and four police coroners found no trace of drugs in the blood taken from the actor who died while on vacation in Palawan on Good Friday last week.

"Based on the toxicological content, (it showed) a very small amount of ethyl alcohol (of about) 0.7 percent which is equivalent to two bottles of beer or two shots of whiskey," Pedregosa said.

Pedregosa quoted the report of Inspector Winston Tan who performed the autopsy on Yan on Saturday, or a day after Yan died at the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan.

He said Yan could not even be considered "intoxicated" because the alcohol content of his blood was way below the 0.16 percent required by law.

"The findings, as per the medico-legal report, (show) Yan died of cardiac arrest secondary to acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis. In layman’s terms, it is bangungot," Pedregosa said.

Pedregosa released the autopsy report to squelch persistent rumors that Yan actually died of an overdose of the designer drug Ecstasy.

He said the autopsy findings corroborated the separate examination conducted by a team of two physicians from the St. Luke’s Medical Center, initiated by Yan’s family.

The actor’s remains now lie at the chapel of his old high school, La Salle Greenhills and is set to be interred at the Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque City on Thursday.

Parañaque City police chief Superintendent Ruben Catabona said he expects thousands to attend the burial of the actor and police are now developing a traffic plan which is expected to be completed today.

Yan, 27, died early in the morning of March 29 at Dos Palmas where he was on Holy Week vacation with five friends, including fellow actor Dominic Ochoa.

Ochoa said their group attended a party on Thursday night and they went back to their cottage at around 2 a.m. Friday. The five friends slept together in one big room, with Yan occupying the loft because he was a snorer.

At around 6 a.m., Yan was heard groaning but his companions dismissed it as mere snoring. When Ochoa tried to wake Yan up at past 9, he was already dead.

A doctor who was also vacationing at the resort tried but failed to resuscitate Yan. He was declared dead on arrival at the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital in Puerto Princesa City. - With Jose Aravilla