NATIONAL Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Director Vicente Danao on Friday, January 8, 2021, said Christine Dacera’s body was immediately embalmed as part of the new protocol amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
He said he would have preferred to have an autopsy conducted on Dacera’s remains, but he was informed that this is the new protocol when a body is found.
“Sa ngayon po yun pa ang isang tinitignan natin kung talaga bang nakakuha ng specimen ‘yung ating kasamahan sa medico legal,” he said in an interview in Valenzuela.
He was reacting on the administrative charges filed by the Dacera family against medico-legal officer Michael Sarmiento for ordering the embalming before the conduct of an autopsy and without the consent of the family.
Dacera was a 23-year-old flight attendant who was found unresponsive in a bathtub in her hotel room after a New Year’s Eve party.
She was pronounced dead in a hospital and her companions, 11 gay men, were accused by the police of rape with homicide.
Roger Reyes, legal counsel of the Dacera family, said that during the meeting between Dacera’s family and Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Debold Sinas on Wednesday, January 6, Sarmiento admitted to having issued the order for embalming.
The autopsy report showed that Dacera died of ruptured aortic aneurysm.
Sinas, however, has insisted that Dacera was raped and killed.
The Makati City Prosecutor’s Office has returned the information on the case to the police and ordered the release of three alleged suspects for lack of sufficient evidence of rape with homicide.
Forensic pathologist Raquel Fortun said it is too late to get substantial evidence from Dacera’s remains as these have been washed, cleaned and embalmed.
Danao said they have formed a Special Investigation Task Group for the conduct of an in-depth investigation on the incident. (Third Anne Peralta-Malonzo / SunStar Philippines)