PNP crime lab had 'sufficient basis' for tagging Dacera death as natural —respondents’ lawyer

The Philippine National Police's Crime Laboratory had "sufficient basis" for declaring that Christine Dacera died of natural causes, the lawyer for some of the men accused of killing her said on Thursday.

The Dacera family spokesperson, lawyer Brick Reyes, earlier said there were "irregularities" in the medico legal report that ruled out homicide in the flight attendant's death. Reyes said the report's conclusion was an "opinion."

"That is unfair to the competent men and women of the Crime Laboratory Office of the PNP," Mike Santiago, lawyer for some of the respondents, said in response.

"These professionals will not release any report without any basis. The basis is clear as day: there are visceral organs submitted for examination, that is the basis of the report," he said at a press conference.

Santiago said that the first medico legal report was based on the autopsy, while the second, newly released one was based on the histopathological examination on Dacera's organs.

"There is sufficient basis. It is not a mere opinion, it is the scientific findings of doctors, basically," he said.

The medico legal report submitted by the PNP to a Makati prosecutor on Wednesday states that Dacera died because of a ruptured aneurysm in her aorta, the largest artery in the human body, that was triggered by an increase in blood pressure.

The report states that Dacera had undiagnosed hypertension, a statement belied by Reyes, who claimed on Thursday that the flight attendant's medical records when she was accepted into the Philippine Airlines show she had a "normal" heart.

Dacera died on January 1 after a New Year's Eve celebration with her friends. Believing she was drugged and sexually abused, her family is pursuing a rape with homicide complaint against her companions.

This is the complaint that is being investigated by the Makati prosecutor.

The National Bureau of Investigation is conducting a separate probe, which included a second autopsy on Dacera's remains. Its results have not yet been made public.—AOL, GMA News