NBI to file charges over Christine Dacera's death

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is expected to file charges on Friday in connection with the death of flight attendant Christine Dacera on January 1.

NBI spokesperson Ferdinand Lavin declined to give details though he said the charges will be different from the complaint for rape with homicide filed by the police before the Makati City Prosecutor’s Office.

“We maintain the level of confidentiality insofar as the full result of the investigation is concerned. Out of respect to DID (Death Investigation Division), I do not want to preempt them,” Lavin told reporters.

On February 17, the Makati City Prosecutor’s Office ended its preliminary investigation into the criminal complaint filed in connection with Dacera's death.

Weeks later, the police asked for the reopening of the probe after laboratory findings supposedly showed traces of illegal drugs and semen from the hotel room Dacera and her friends stayed in on New Year's Eve.

The NBI, meanwhile, said it was able to extract urine from Dacera’s embalmed body. 

Some of Dacera’s friends were among those charged with rape with homicide.

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.

A medico legal report of the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory ruled out homicide as the cause of death. Instead, the report said Dacera died of a ruptured aortic aneurysm that was triggered by an increase in blood pressure. —KBK, GMA News