Actress Alma Concepcion on Thursday appeared before the National Bureau of Investigation to shed light on the May 21 party concert in Pasay City where five people died due to intake of alcohol and illegal drugs.
Investigators, however, refused to reveal the details of Concepcion’s testimony and said they invited the actress for questioning after she wrote on her social media account about what she saw before and during the Close-Up Forever Summer concert event held at the parking area near the Mall of Asia.
“I saw some of the teenagers dancing, wearing shades (sunglasses) and masks, chewing gums; they came in prepared with all the props: masks, inhalers, lights , shades, and bandanna. They don’t look like first timers in taking ecstasy,” said Concepcion in her May 22 comment posted on Facebook.
“There was this teenage group [same age range as my son’s] in front of us, that were obviously into something else. They danced for more than an hour, none of them holding any liquid. Obviously they weren’t on JUST alcohol. Their eyes were rolling, teeth grinding, and they were dancing no-stop for the whole hour [or more than]. No liquids,” she wrote.
Concepcion narrated that she saw a girl from that group suddenly collapsing, with her eyes open. She added she realized something was wrong, so she approached the group and told them to call the medics and saw the girl’s hands and legs stiffen. She hoped that the girl she saw was not the same girl who died in the same event.
The actress shared with the NBI a video footage she took during the event.
Concepcion said she and her son went to the party to see their favorite disk jockeys.
The NBI Anti-Illegal Drugs Division stepped into the case in close coordination with the Special Investigation Task Group composed of the Pasay City Police, Southern Police District and National Capital Region Police Office.
The NBI recently arrested six suspected drug peddlers during separate operations in Pasay City and Parañaque City while their counterparts in the police were clueless on the case.
An NCRPO officer said they cannot divulge any information on the case, pending the ongoing follow- up operations of their team.
Both the NBI and the Philippine National Police crime laboratory offices earlier concluded that two of the five fatalities died of alcohol and ecstasy intake.
Based on the histopathology and toxicology test results, party drug ecstasy is the common substance found in the bodies of two fatalities—American national Eric Miller and Ken Miyagawa.
PNP Crime Laboratory chief deputy director Emmanuel Aranas said Miller and Miyagawa died of multiple organ failure caused by drug and alcohol intake. He added the two tested positive for ecstasy.
Ecstasy is among the illegal substances seized by the NBI when they arrested the six suspected drug peddlers.
The other two fatalities—Lance Garcia, 32, and Bianca Fontejon, 18—were earlier found to have died due to massive cardiac arrest.
The hearts of Garcia and Fontejon were found to be “cooked”, showing brown red and black colors.
The family of another victim Ariel Leal, 22, refused to have his body undergo autopsy examination.
Meanwhile, the six suspected drug peddler identified as Joshua Habalo, Sergeoh Villanueva alias “Gio”, Marc Deen, Martin Dimacali, Thomas Halili and Eric Valbuena denied they were involved in the Close-Up event.
The suspects, aged 20 to 30 years old, were found in possession of marijuana, cocaine, and ecstasy.
The NBI also seized from them “kitchen-type” laboratory equipment used in manufacturing synthetic and party drugs.
At the Customs, agents arrested the claimant of a parcelt containing P3 million worth of ecstasy pills which came from the Netherlands.
Customs did not name the consignee pending investigation. With Vito Barcelo