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Respondents to file counter charges vs. family of Christine Dacera


Respondents to file counter charges vs. family of Christine Dacera

Christine Dacera’s companions at a Makati hotel where she was found unresponsive on January 1 will file counter charges against her family for allegedly making unfounded claims against them, their lawyer said Monday. 

Mike Santiago, legal counsel for five of the 11 respondents, accused the late flight attendant’s family of perjury, malicious prosecution, libel and incriminating innocent persons. Santiago said his clients were also contemplating seeking moral damages. 

Perjury charges may also be filed against the witnesses of the Dacera camp, he added. 

“We will also file counter charges against people who are concocting lies one after the other,” Santiago said at a press briefing. “They want to force the issue there was rape with homicide.”

Santiago said they were not inclined to enter into an amicable settlement. 

“They are innocent. There’s nothing to amicably settle. You only settle amicably if you think you’re guilty,” he said. 

Dacera’s camp respected the possible legal action of the respondents even as they took exception to Santiago’s allegations. 

“They have their rights under the law as much as the Daceras do,” said Jose Ledda III, one of the legal counsels for the Dacera family, in a text message to GMA News Online. “Insofar as the family is concerned however, there was no malice in their actions.”

Ledda said the pending complaints before the Makati Prosecutor’s Office and the Department of Justice (DOJ) were based on pieces of evidence gathered by the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). 

He cited the findings of the PNP and NBI on the traces of illegal drugs found in the room where Dacera and her friends stayed and the PNP’s assertion of presence of semen on blanket specimens. 

“So if we are to base the actions of the family with the gathered pieces of evidence, it is safe to say that there was no malicious prosecution, no incriminating of innocent persons and they did not commit perjury,” Ledda said. 

Some of Dacera’s friends were among those charged by the police with rape with homicide before the Makati Prosecutor’s Office. 

Eleven people, including Dacera’s companions and the medico-legal officer of the Southern Police District, also face complaints before the DOJ ranging from violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act, perjury to reckless imprudence resulting in homicide. 

Dacera, 23, died on January 1 after a New Year's Eve celebration with her friends. Her family believes she was drugged and sexually abused. 

Dacera's friends, however, have insisted they did not harm her, instead claiming that they took care of her when she was heavily drunk and until her final moments.

Santiago said his clients’ accusers were “grasping at straws” to justify their case. 

He said the NBI backed the PNP’s findings that Dacera died of ruptured aortic aneurysm. The NBI had also said they could not prove that Dacera was raped, Santiago added. 

“We feel vindicated by these charges being filed by the NBI because it appears that [there’s] nothing to be afraid of, nothing to worry,” Santiago said. 

Santiago, however, found it laughable that his clients were charged with reckless imprudence resulting in homicide. He said such a complaint usually applies to erring drivers and doctors. 

“They were simply having fun and should not be expected, morally or legally, to [take] care [of] their drinking buddies,” he said. —KG, GMA News

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