MANILA- Authorities are investigating the death of a 19-year-old woman due to an alleged drug overdose during a party in Cebu City last Saturday, Jan. 19.
Police are looking into the death of Ashley Abad, who reportedly took the party drug ecstasy during a concert on the eve of the Sinulog Festival.
Benny Abad, uncle of the teen, said they suspect that someone spiked his niece's drink with the party drug or forced her to take it since the teen was not a drug user.
The Abad family has yet to confirm whether drug overdose was the cause of the teen's death, he said.
"We are cooperating with authorities now to let them find the truth. We want them to find the truth and seek justice for the family," he said.
The teen attended a concert at the Cebu Business Park on the eve of the Sinulog Festival.
She was said to have collapsed in the middle of the event and was attended to by medical personnel of the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation. She passed away at the hospital on Sunday afternoon.
Central Visayas Police Director Debold Sinas said the teen's companions will be persons of interest on her death, including her boyfriend.
"We don't have identity yet who is responsible for it, because we need to interview who she was with," Sinas said in local dialect.
Police are also asking the Abad family's permission to have the teen's remains autopsied.
Aside from the ongoing police investigation, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) is also conducting its own probe into the incident.
The teen's death comes a day before the Sinulog Festival, one of the Philippines' most popular religious festivals which usually draws millions of people.-report from Annie Perez, ABS-CBN News