One of the suspects tagged in connection with the “rape-slay” of flight attendant Christine Angelica “Tin” Dacera has denied that he participated in the alleged crime.
Gregorio Angelo Rafael de Guzman, the son of singer Claire dela Fuente, said yesterday that the accusation that he raped Dacera was “absurd” because he is not a straight man.
“How can there be rape? I’m gay. I have never had sex with a woman,” he said in English and Filipino in an interview with the news program QRT.
Read: 11 suspects charged with provisional rape, homicide in Christine Dacera’s death
“What they are saying is painful. They don’t know what happened,” de Guzman added.
De Guzman, who also works as a flight attendant, said he was introduced to Dacera inside Makati’s City Garden Hotel on the night that the alleged crime took place. He went to sleep after partying with her and other companions, then woke up to find the victim lying unconscious in a hotel bathtub.
He insisted that he tried his best to revive Dacera.
“I checked her nose to see if she was exhaling. There was nothing. I checked her heartbeat. There was nothing as well. I said, ‘Tin. Tin. Babe, wake up, please.’ And then I started to give her CPR,” he recalled.
“We carried her out of the tub by her arms. She was still warm. That’s why I thought I could still save her,” he added.
He, along with other partygoers, brought Dacera to the hospital for treatment and even reported what occurred to the Makati police.
Read: Philippine Airlines flight attendant found dead in Makati hotel
“We were there. We did not abandon Tin until the end. We did not leave her behind; so what they are saying is just painful,” he said.
Dela Fuente insisted that her son, who allegedly called to tell her about Dacera’s death, was innocent.
“We have nothing to hide. And I believe my son because he called me. He said, ‘Ma, there’s a situation here. I think this girl is dead,'” the singer and entrepreneur said.
“My son is gay. That’s hard to admit. I know that since he was a child. I’m really scared. I just want people to be fair. We are expecting fair play here. We’re seeking justice too for Tin,” she said.
De Guzman is one of the 11 men charged by the Philippine National Police with homicide and “provisional” rape in connection with Dacera’s death. Makati police chief Colonel Harold Depositar insisted that the rape charge had a basis, saying that the victim had “lacerations and sperm in her genitalia.”
However, CNN Philippines reported that the autopsy did not mention anything about finding traces of semen but noted that there were abrasions and lacerations on Dacera’s genitalia. It also stated that the official cause of the victim’s death was a “ruptured aortic aneurysm.”
The Dacera family has refused to accept the findings of the police and are seeking another autopsy because the authorities supposedly ignored their kin’s injuries. Paolo Tuliao, one of the Daceras’ lawyers, said in a press conference yesterday that they are disputing the conclusion that the victim died of an aneurysm.
“They didn’t specify in the report about her hematoma, the bruises that were found on the victim’s body, that’s why we [sought] another post-mortem report from an independent medico-legal,” the lawyer said.
