MANILA, Philippines – The blood test conducted on the Filipino-American naval officer, who allegedly jumped to his death after he was caught carrying a sachet of cocaine, was negative for drugs, a police official said yesterday.
Senior Superintendent Napoleaon Cuaton, chief of Pasay City police, said Filipino and American pathologists have finished examining the remains of Lt. Commander Scintar Mejia on Thursday and the “verbal report” he received was that the blood tested negative for drugs.
“But of course, that’s just a verbal report. We have to wait for the official findings before we can conclude anything,” Cuaton said over the phone.
He also clarified that it is the Filipino pathologist who conducted the autopsy and American experts and investigators merely observed the procedure.
Cuaton said he is expecting the separate findings of the pathologists yesterday afternoon in a closed-door conference at the Pasay City police headquarters along F. B. Harrison.
“I have yet to receive a go signal if they will attend the meeting. I cannot rush them to submit their findings,” he said.
Mejia, 32, was arrested by the Police Aviation Security Group at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Sunday for allegedly possessing a sachet of white powdery substance and was brought to the headquarters.
The next day, airport police said Mejia jumped to his death, headfirst.
The susbtance seized from Mejia tested positive for cocaine during the field test conducted at the airport by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
It, however, tested negative for drugs during the confirmatory check at the PDEA office on Dec. 27.
A source from the Southern Police District (SPD) Scene of the Crime Operatives told The STAR that Mejia, who was bound for a Los Angeles flight, arrived in the country on Dec. 24 and was rushing to leave the next day “maybe because his superiors did not know he was here.”
The source added that it was possible that airport authorities did not know he was an American Navy official because Mejia used his Filipino passport.
Mejia’s family declined to give any statement and turned down request for interviews on Thursday at the Rizal Funeral Homes, where his remains were stored pending the autopsy. - By Aie Balagtas See
