APART from the P1-million assistance to the kin of the victim of the Resorts World Manila, the management must still indemnify them in civil damages, the Public Attorney’s Office said Friday.
PAO chief Persida Acosta said that RWM must not only be held criminally liable, but must also be culpable for civil damages.
She said PAO has already stepped into the plan of some relatives of the victims to file a civil suit against the resort casino hotel owner, the Travellers International Hotel Group Inc., and its security provider, the NC Lanting Security.
“At least 10 heirs of the victims have sought our legal assistance and have qualified as indigent litigants,” she said in a radio interview, adding that not all of the victims are from well-to-do families.
“Don’t judge them why they were there. Some of them were employees, while some were relatives or friends of the hotel guests who came there for a visit,” she added.
“RWM must settle the civil aspect. They have the capability to do so. We have included the security agency because of its failure to rescue the victims. There were lapses, that is clear on its part. It should have allowed the Bureau of Fire Protection to go inside and allow firefighters save the victims.”
Acosta said the Supreme Court has adopted the American Expectancy Table of Mortality to determine the civil compensation of a person injured or killed based on his or her life expectancy and earning capacity.
“One of our clients is a grandchild of one of the victims. The minor child has no one to depend on and cannot even work,” she said.
On June 2, Jessie Carlos, armed with guns, broke into the RWM casino hotel, torched some parts of the area, indiscriminately fired shots, took away casino chips worth hundreds of millions of pesos, and burned himself in a room at the fifth floor of the establishment.