The Parañaque City Regional Trial Court today has found five people guilty of the drug charges filed against them involving the ill-fated rave party in Pasay City two years ago where five concertgoers died.
In the 37-page decision released today by Parañaque City RTC Judge Danilo Suarez, the accused Marc David Deen and Seergeoh Villanueva were found guilty of drug peddling and are sentenced to life imprisonment and to pay a fine of P5 million.
They were also found guilty for the illegal possession of 6.91 grams of MDMA and ecstacy including the three other accused; Erika Dianne Valbuena, Thomas Lee Martin, and Martin Angelo Dimacali. All five of them are sentenced to 20 year imprisonment as minimum to life imprisonment as maximum and to pay a fine of P5 million.
The five were also found guilty for the possession of other illegal drugs such as cannabinol and ketamine, clonazepam, "shabu," cocaine, marijuana and various drug paraphernalia.
A buy-bust operation resulted in the arrest of the suspects in a condominium in Parañaque where four of the suspects confessed that they were present during the concert. Inside Deen’s unit was a kitchen-type laboratory allegedly where illegal drugs are made since a manual was found.
The five however, are acquitted of the charge of manufacturing illegal drugs due to lack of sufficient evidence.
The group was arrested two weeks after the tragedy in the rave party in Pasay City where Ken Migawa, 18, and Eric Anthony Miller, 33, Bianca Fontejon, 18, Lance Garcia, 36, and Ariel Leal, 22, died.
Later autopsies by the Southern Police District and the National Bureau of Investigation Medico-Legal Division revealed that Migawa and Miller died of heart failure and brain swelling, while Fontejon and Garcia died of sudden heart attack.
Fontejon had two types of dangerous drugs in her body: MDMA methylene homolog and synthetic cathinones. They further explained that whatever the drugs that were ingested by the individuals was potent enough to destroy their internal organs.
The four male suspects currently detained at the Parañaque City Jail will immediately be transferred to the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City while Valbuena will be transferred to the Women's Correctional Facility in Mandaluyong CIty.