Basketball player tagged as person of interest in Christine Dacera case

The basketball player in Room 2207, the other hotel room visited by flight attendant Christine Dacera before she died, showed up at the National Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday.

According to John Consulta’s report on “24 Oras” on Thursday, Justin Rieta was among the 12 “persons of interest” accompanied by three lawyers as they heeded a subpoena issued by investigators.

The NBI earlier urged the persons of interest to come forward and cooperate with authorities.

On Wednesday, Rieta went to the NBI to give his statement.

“Hindi ko po kilala ‘yong kabilang room po. Wala po akong kilala sa kanila,” Rieta said.

Rieta also expressed willingness to cooperate with authorities to solve the case.

Earlier, Dacera’s companions at Room 2209 said they were introduced to people at Room 2207 by a common friend.

Dacera’s friends said she went to the other room several times.

After Dacera died on January 1, authorities accused her companions of rape with homicide and detained three of them until prosecutors ordered their release pending further investigation.

Authorities said they are expecting the twelve persons of interest to submit their sworn statements in the following days.

“We are very thankful that they are cooperating in the investigation and we see this as a very good development in the investigation so we will be able to come out with the truth, ano ba talaga nangyari. This is very important to us para mahimay-himay namin. Where were you? Anong ginawa mo? Who was with whom? So lahat ‘to titingnan namin,” NBI deputy director Ferdinand Lavin said.

“Our main objective here in the NBI is to uncover the truth. No more, no less. We want to establish what happened to Christine Dacera,” NBI director Eric Distor added.—Ma. Angelica Garcia/LDF, GMA News