Gregorio de Guzman, one of the suspects involved in the death of Christine Dacera explained his side of the story of what transpired on the day they discovered the flight attendant’s lifeless body on New Year’s Day.
De Guzman told CNN Philippines said he and his friends found Dacera unconscious in the bathtub in a hotel room in Makati City. He insisted they did not leave Christine Dacera and even went to the police station to give their statements.
He said he stayed at the precinct for four hours but was not asked to give a statement at the time. De Guzman said his attorney then asked the police if he could go home since he already gave all of his contact details to the police.
“I was with my attorney. After four hours, because I was so tired, my attorney just felt bad for me, so he asked the police if I could already head home because they didn’t even ask for a statement,” De Guzman told The Source. “I gave them my information. I’m not hiding. I am simply following the instructions of my lawyer.”
“I’m not hiding,” he declared. “Even though I just met her (Dacera), I care, because she’s still a human being, she doesn’t deserve what happened to her.”
The police earlier arrested three suspects who were charged with rape with homicide complaints, while eight others remain at large.
De Guzman said the possible charges were “absurd,” noting he and his friends even tried to revive Christine Dacera.
“What made them think that we could ever be capable of doing this?” De Guzman argued. “She was the only girl in the group, that’s why she was like the princess, everyone looked out for her.”
Suspect explains how Christine Dacera got her wounds
De Guzman admitted they drank during the party, adding the last time she saw Christine Dacera alive was when she gave him a tequila shot.
However, he believes that no rape occurred. “To my knowledge, no. I don’t think she was,” he noted.
He said he did not see any “signs of violence” at Christine Dacera’s body, saying her wounds could come from when they lifted her from the bathtub or when they tried to put her in the wheelchair.
“The first thing I would tend to notice was, was there any sense of violence or signs of violence when you find her, and there was none,” he stressed. “So I was by her knees and legs, and I didn’t even notice any bruises… The thing is, the bruises could have come from maybe us lifting her out of the bathtub or us trying to put her in the wheelchair.”
De Guzman appealed for due process and asked the public to stop spreading false information.
“We were there for her till the very end,” De Guzman said. “And also, her friends deserve better than this. They already lost a friend, they already went through the trauma of trying to take care of her limp body, and now they’re in jail.”
“Let’s do due process of law and the investigation,” he added. “We have been participating willingly.”