A Philippine Airlines flight attendant was raped and murdered in a hotel room after a New Year’s Eve party – and 11 men have been arrested for the horrific attack, it was revealed Tuesday.
Christine Angelica Dacera, 23, was found unconscious in the empty bathtub of her Makati City room early Jan. 1, the Philippine Daily Inquirer said. Friends and hotel staff took her to a nearby hospital, where she was later pronounced dead, officials told the newspaper.
“Sexual abuse has taken place on the basis of an initial investigation, ”spokesman Brig of the Philippine National Police. General Ilderbrandi Usana told the newspaper.
She had “cuts and semen on her genitals” and scratches on her arms and legs, police said.
Makati City police on Monday filed a preliminary charge of rape and murder against 11 men who were with her at the party, the paper said.
Three of them were arrested while the others were still being hunted, Makati City police chief Colonel Harold Deposita told the Daily Inquirer.
Only three of them were Dacera’s friends. The others were practically strangers to her, as they were only known to her three friends, ”said the police chief.
Dacera was a flight attendant at Philippine Airlines (PAL) Express, who said it was “mourning the tragic death”.
“We wish the truth to come out in the interests of justice,” the company told the newspaper on Tuesday.
Her mother, Sharon Dacera, appealed to President Rodrigo Duterte saying her daughter had been “treated like a pig” in the “barbaric” crime.
“Christine doesn’t deserve this brutality … they should be punished,” the grieving mother said, according to the Daily Inquirer.