A 33-year-old woman who claimed to be a licensed aesthetician was arrested during an entrapment operation conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI 7) inside a hotel in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City, on July 19. The suspect was identified as Dimber Dela Cruz Celis, from Barangay Puerto, Cagayan De Oro City. Her arrest came after one of her clients reported to the NBI 7 office alleging that the suspect had infected her after performing face treatments on her, including jawtox and undereye filler inside the former’s hotel room in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City, on April 15, 2024.
The victim said she then contacted Celis through the social media to get her advise about the situation, but the suspect did not reply and block her instead. As a result, the victim sought a second opinion from two physicians, who advised her to have the fillers removed since they would cause the bags under her eyes to enlarge even more. When the victim was able to get in touch with the suspect again on July 17, she was told that she would be traveling to Cebu City to have her complaint addressed, but she would need to pay an extra sum to finish the process.
On July 19, 2024, the victim reported the problem to the NBI-CEVRO, which set up the entrapment operation. When the NBI operatives saw Celis injecting a chemical into the victim's face during the entrapment operation on that same day, they moved quickly to arrest her. The suspect yielded used and unused needles and surgical gloves stored inside a box during the raid.
The victim stated that she wanted to get rid of her eye bags, so she took advantage of the jawtox and undereye filler treatments that Celis offered on social media at a reasonable price of P3,000. "Ang kaning victim nakakita siya og post sa Glowing Beauty nga nag-offer og services so nag try siya og pm (personal message) nag inquire siya. So mao nato ang start sa tanan unya she was convinced by the subject nga mag caravan siya diri sa Cebu unya daghan siyag promo nga i-offer so mao to nagkita sila," NBI 7 agent Atty.
Wenceslao Galendez said on Tuesday, July 23. (This victim attempted to contact Glowing Beauty by sending a personal message after seeing one of their posts offering services. That's how it all began, and the reason they met was because she was persuaded by the subject that she would be hosting a caravan in Cebu and that she had many promotions to offer).
"...
allegedly way back gi-injectan siya sa subject og something sa iyang eyebags to treat the eyebags daw and then weeks after nag swell baga kaayo iyang eyebags, naghubag unya nagpa-inject sad siya sa iyang jaw line," he added. (It is said that several weeks after her eyebags swelled up, the subject injected something on her eyebags to treat it and also on her jaw line). During questioning, Celis refuted the charges made against her, stating that she is a licensed aesthetician who completed a six-month training program to obtain her license to practice.
Further investigation revealed that the defendant, who was the leader and founder of a Forex Rice Trading Group in Butuan City, had also been arrested in 2020 for syndicated estafa. In 2023, she was also accused of practicing medicine illegally by the NBI Western Visayas (WEVRO) in Iloilo City. Celis underwent proceedings on the charges that were brought against her last Monday, July 22.
(ANV, TPT).
