Dacera’s ma: Friends ‘had lapses’

MANILA, Philippines — The friends of the late flight attendant Christine Dacera “had lapses” that ultimately led to her death on New Year’s Day, her mother said yesterday.

In an interview aired over ANC, Sharon Dacera said the friends of her 23-year-old daughter should have done more so that Christine would still be alive.

“When he learned that my daughter had headaches, the hotel has a clinic. He should have gone and called the information desk to ask for help. Why did he not do it?” Sharon said in Filipino, as she referred to Rommel Galido, one of the 11 respondents in the case.

According to an earlier interview with Galido, Christine supposedly told him that a certain “Mark” put something in her drink.

Galido, however, said he went to sleep after hearing this.

Christine was found unconscious in the bathtub of Room 2209 at the City Garden Grand Hotel in Makati on Jan. 1 after a night of partying.

According to the initial police report, Christine’s friends tried but failed to revive her. She was said to have died due to a ruptured aortic aneurysm.

Christine’s family sought a separate autopsy on Christine’s body, but the results were kept confidential.

In yesterday’s interview, Sharon insisted that Christine was indeed raped and drugged.

“For me, my daughter was raped. If you see the body of Christine, if you are the mother you will surely feel the pain suffered by Christine from them, but my daughter cannot speak anymore because she died,” she added.

Urine extraction

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) was able to extract 100 milliliters of urine from Christine’s body, a piece of evidence that would be useful in determining the cause of her death, Department of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said yesterday.

“The results of the laboratory examination may come out in a few days,” he said.

Guevarra earlier said he hopes the NBI would be able to complete its investigation in time for the preliminary investigation hearing set by the Makati prosecutor’s office today.

Last Jan. 7, he issued a department order instructing the NBI to conduct a separate investigation of the Dacera case because he believed the initial investigation done by the city police was not thorough.

Victim blaming, gender stereotyping

The failure to conduct a thorough investigation before information was released to the public has resulted in victim blaming and gender stereotyping among those involved in the Dacera case, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said yesterday.

CHR commissioner Karen Gomez-Dumpit said statements that blame the victim, such as those that shifted the focus on what she wore, the company she kept and the places she went to “trivialize the violence and demonize the woman, as the blame cast on her creates the perception that ‘she had it coming,’ making her unworthy of protection and remedies.”

Dumpit also noted cases of gender stereotyping involving the respondents in the case who are members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

“While it is true that the crime of rape can be committed regardless of the sexual orientation of the perpetrator, in this particular case, the premature announcement of rape and murder is simply irresponsible and reckless,” said Dumpit.

“A thorough investigation of the case before coming out on media would have prevented all of these,” she added. – Evelyn Macairan, Janvic Mateo