13th Dacera party guest surfaces at NBI

MANILA, Philippines — Another person of interest in the death of flight attendant Christine Dacera has surfaced, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said yesterday.

The person of interest is the 13th man billeted at Room 2207 of the City Garden Grand Hotel who appeared before the bureau, NBI deputy director and spokesman Ferdinand Lavin said in a Viber exchange.

Last week, 12 men billeted at Room 2207, which Dacera visited during a New Year’s Eve party hours before she was found dead in Room 2209, appeared before the NBI to clear their names.

Lavin said the person of interest goes by the name of “Ethan Maguire” on social media.

“He is from Region 8 and we fetched him there with his counsel yesterday,” Lavin said.

In an interview with reporters on Friday, Lavin said the person of interest’s lawyer called the NBI and asked to be fetched.

Dacera and her friends were seen in closed-circuit television footage going in and out of Room 2207.

Negative for drugs

Meanwhile, five of the 11 men charged with rape with homicide in connection with Dacera’s death tested negative for methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu and tetrahydrocannabinol, a chemical found in marijuana or cannabis.

Clark Rapinan and Rommel Galido were tested at a clinic in Las Piñas on Jan. 11; John Pascual dela Serna III at a clinic in Makati on Jan. 8; Alain Chen, also known as Valentine Rosales, at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City on Jan. 6; and Gregorio Angelo de Guzman at the Asian Hospital and Medical Center on Jan. 4.

The drug test results of the five men were posted on the Facebook page of Fund the Truth, which was created on Jan. 9 to solicit funds for the respondents’ legal expenses.

Their lawyers said the men tested negative for drug use during the preliminary investigation hearing by the city prosecutor on Jan. 13.

Galido and Dela Serna also filed counter-affidavits intending to withdraw their statements made before the city police while in detention. They alleged that police officers intimidated them into claiming that illegal drugs were used during the New Year’s Eve party that they, Dacera and nine other accused attended. – Ghio Ong