All about money? FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 09/19/2010

All about money?

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

09/19/2010
It certainly looks like the Dacer daughters, or their lawyers, want to make a pile of money by filing a civil suit against former President Joseph Estrada to the tune of $20 million, plus $100 million in punitive damages.

The charge? Torture and extra-judicial killing of their father, publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer.

The Dacer sisters filed the complaint with the US District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco last Sept. 16, citing the defendants’ violation of the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) and the Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA).

Monetary damages are sought for the alleged “cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment, torture and extra-judicial killing” of their father.

First off, why do it in the US? Why not the Philippines?

Second, it’s really all about money that they want to have through this suit, as they even included Erap, who certainly was never into extra-judicial killing or even torture, as his administration’s record shows. Besides, there is no motive that can be established.

Third, even in the murder charges they filed in the Philippines, the Dacer daughters did not include Erap, and even Cesar Mancao, whose testimony they relied on in filing the murder complaint against Ping Lacson, did not implicate Erap..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100919com2.html