What began as a business dispute has now become part of a much bigger story surrounding the controversial Dermacare investment scheme.
Businesswoman Freda Luz Singson said she was determined to help locate Chanda Atienza, the founder and owner of Dermacare Skin and Beauty Clinic, after claiming she was personally affected by transactions involving the business.
According to an exclusive report by PEP.ph, Singson traveled to Kuala Lumpur with beauty queen and social media personality Lars Pacheco to assist efforts that led to the detention of Atienza and her sister, Vilma, at Pavilion Mall in Bukit Bintang on August 21, 2026.
The two were detained by the Royal Malaysia Police, according to PEP.ph’s report. Pacheco said their detention was connected to issues involving their passport status, although the full legal circumstances and any subsequent proceedings have yet to be independently detailed by Malaysian authorities in publicly available reports.
From an Alleged Business Loss to a Search Across Borders
Singson said she had initially entered into an agreement involving the financing of proposed beauty clinic branches in Baguio and Fairview. According to accounts cited by PEP.ph, she later alleged that the planned projects did not materialize and that substantial amounts of money were lost.
She has since become one of the people publicly calling for accountability over the wider controversy surrounding Dermacare.
For Singson, however, the issue became bigger than her own experience.
In an emotional account, she said reports of other alleged victims—including claims of severe financial and personal hardship—motivated her to continue pursuing the matter. Those claims should be understood as allegations and personal accounts that would require independent verification through official investigations or court proceedings.
The Dermacare Controversy: What We Know
The controversy surrounding Dermacare-Beyond Skin Care Solutions has been unfolding since at least 2023, when the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission issued an advisory stating that the company was not authorized to solicit investments or sell securities without the required registration and approval.
The SEC also warned that individuals involved in promoting or facilitating unauthorized investment activities could potentially face legal consequences, depending on the facts of each case.
The case later drew widespread public attention after celebrity endorsers, including Neri Naig-Miranda and Rufa Mae Quinto, became involved in legal proceedings connected to the controversy.
Their cases also highlighted an important distinction: being named in a complaint or facing an arrest warrant does not establish criminal guilt.
Neri’s syndicated estafa case was eventually dismissed after a Pasay court found insufficient grounds to sustain the complaint against her, according to reporting on the court proceedings. Meanwhile, reports in 2025 said the Securities Regulation Code charges against Rufa Mae Quinto were dismissed, following her earlier voluntary surrender and posting of bail.
Both women had maintained that they were not involved in defrauding investors.
A New Chapter in an Ongoing Case
The reported detention of Atienza in Malaysia could mark a significant development in a controversy that has affected investors, business figures and celebrities alike.
But several crucial questions remain unanswered.
Will Atienza face additional proceedings in Malaysia? Will Philippine authorities seek her return to the country? And what impact could her detention have on the unresolved complaints and allegations surrounding the Dermacare investment controversy?
For now, those questions remain open.
What is clear is that the story has taken an extraordinary turn—from complaints and courtrooms in the Philippines to a reported operation in one of Kuala Lumpur’s busiest commercial districts.
And for Freda Singson, the journey appears to have been deeply personal.
She says she began as someone who believed she had been wronged.
Then she decided to help find the person she holds responsible.
The bigger question now is what happens after the arrest—and whether this long-running controversy is finally moving closer to its day of reckoning.
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