The City Garden Grand Hotel (CGGH) in Makati, the hotel where flight attendant Christine Dacera, 23, was found dead on January 1, will no longer operate after the Department of Tourism revoked its certificate of authority to operate due to what it called fraudulent solicitation of business.
According to the DOT, the CGGH was found to “have misrepresented itself to the public as being allowed to accommodate guests for leisure or staycation purposes despite being a quarantine facility.”
“The DOT… finds the CGGH in Makati City liable for the offense of gross and evident bad faith in dealing with clients/fraudulent solicitation of business or making any false, deceptive, or misleading claims or statements for the purpose of soliciting business from clients,” the DOT said in a statement.
The Tourism Department said it considered evidence found in the case of Dacera, found unresponsive in a bathtub in the hotel on January 1 after celebrating New Year with her friends.
“The pieces of evidence showed that even prior to the incident and until now, the CGGH is marketing packages to accept leisure guests and never indicated that it is a quarantine hotel,” it said.
Amid the pandemic, several hotels in the country have been turned into quarantine facilities for persons under investigation for COVID-19 to help ease the burden of hospitals.
Meanwhile, the National Capital Region Police denied Thursday claims made by friends of Dacera that they were coerced and beaten by Makati police officers into making false statements regarding the purported presence of illegal drugs during their private party at the CGGH.
“They have been coming out on different social media platforms and they are saying the same story. They did not mention anything about them being beaten on their Facebook pages. Why is it that there is a story about them being beaten up now?” NCRPO chief, Brig. Gen. Vicente Danao Jr. told reporters.
Danao said he had no idea why Dacera’s friends were now making such claims.
“…It is only them who know why but as far as the Makati City police station is concerned, per information from the chief of police himself, there is no such thing as mauling, coercion, or anything about drugs where they were coerced into making statements,” he added.
On Wednesday, JP dela Serna and Rommel Galido admitted they lied about one of their friends, Mark Anthony Rosales.
Dela Serna retracted his previous statements, where he said he saw Rosales holding illegal drugs during the party.
Galido also retracted his statement that Dacera complained to him that Rosales spiked her drink.
Danao said perjury charges might be filed against the two who admitted making false claims as they made their statements under oath.
Danao said they have amended the case during the preliminary hearing on Wednesday at the Makati City Prosecutor’s Office and included eight more persons of interest.
Prosecutors have rescheduled the hearing on the case to Jan. 27 as police investigators are still waiting for the results of forensics tests on Dacera’s body such as DNA analysis, toxicology/chemical analysis, histopathology examination, and laboratory results from the Makati Medical Center.