‘Shop owner’s son tagged helper in milk tea deaths’

A female trainee working for ErgoCha teahouse recently said that a lawyer for murder suspect Lloyd Abrigo asked her to accuse the store’s helper of putting the acid in the milk tea that killed his father and a customer in Sampaloc, Manila last month.

In her affidavit, Ayee Alejandro (not her real name) said Abrigo, his mother Adela and their lawyers Benedicto Buenaventura and Hazel Naredo invited her to a restaurant in Quezon City two days before they called for a press conference on April 17.

During the meeting, Alejandro said Naredo told her in jest to blame the store’s helper Raymundo Santos (not his real name) for the milk tea poisoning.

Alejandro was accompanied by her mother during the meeting.

“Atty. Naredo and I transferred to another room where she asked me if I believe that Santos was capable of putting poison in the milk tea,” Alejandro said. “I replied no because he is kind.”

At this juncture, she said the lawyer jokingly told her to implicate Santos in the milk tea deaths. The trainee, however, refused.

“We returned to the room where Ma’am Adela, Sir Lloyd, Atty. Buenaventura and my mother were waiting,” she said.

After the meeting, Alejandro said Naredo told her to keep mum on the milk tea poisoning incident.

“Before we left, Ma’am Adela gave me a cell phone and asked to choose from four SIM cards. Atty. Buenaventura told me that they would just contact me,” she said.

Police considered Alejandro’s affidavit, which virtually cleared Santos, as a strong evidence against Abrigo.

Earlier, the Manila Police District (MPD) filed murder charges against Abrigo for the death of his father William and customer Suzaine Dagohoy after drinking Hokkaido- flavored milk tea on April 9.

The Manila Police District said the results of toxicology tests showed that William and Dagohoy had ingested oxalic acid, a substance commonly used as a cleaning or bleaching agent.

Santos, in his affidavit, said that Abrigo brought a foul-smelling liquid to the store the night before the milk tea poisoning happened.

Abrigo also ordered him to clean the pitcher containing the poisonous milk tea, Santos said.