The three men arrested for the death at the hotel of a flight attendant in the Philippines were released from custody on Wednesday – while prosecutors criticized the lack of evidence that she had been raped or killed.
The trio – the only ones arrested out of 11 accused of killing Christina Angelica Dacera after a New Year’s Eve party at his hotel – were released as prosecutors threw the case back in Makati, which ruled prematurely it was a “solved case,” he said.
Prosecutors insisted that “the evidence presented so far is insufficient to establish that she was sexually assaulted or raped” – and, if so, which of the groups that were with her were responsible, with many of the 11 saying they were gay.
They also insisted that even though the 23-year-old Filipino companion had been raped, police had not yet shown that she had caused her death after she was found unconscious in the bathtub of her room on January 1.
Prosecutor General Benedicto Malcontento gave police until January 13 to come up with stronger evidence, demanding DNA as well as toxicological results.
An initial autopsy suggested that Dacera died of a “broken aortic aneurysm” and made no mention of seminal fluids, CNN said.
The ruling allowed John Pascual Dela Serna III, Rommel Galido and John Paul Halili to go free on Wednesday.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Halil said through tears on CNN. Galido said the dead companion was “like a brother to me,” insisting, “I love her very much.”
The other eight suspects who had spent time with them had not yet been picked up before Wednesday’s ruling. All 11 faced a provisional charge of rape with homicide after the local police chief said that all those present were responsible for not protecting Dacera, saying that “an act of one is an act of all”
At least one of the named suspects, Gregorio de Guzman – the son of the well-known Filipino singer Claire dela Fuente – insisted that most of the men there were gay.
“How did it become rape? I’m gay. I’ve never had sex with a woman in my life, “Guzman told ABS-CBN TV, saying up to eight of the 11 were” probably gay like us. “
He insisted he remembered that Dacera was “happy” at the party, then performed CPR on him the next morning after he found her unconscious in the tub in her room at the City Garden Grand Hotel.
Dacera was a flight attendant for the Philippine Airlines (PAL) Express, which said it was “mourning the tragic death.”