Tuesday, November 13, 2007 Plane owner to settle with Airphil 2000 victims By Ben O. Tesiorna
HUNDREDS of millions of dollars are set to be rewarded to the families of the 131 victims who perished in Air Philippines' Flight 541 when it crashed at the Island Garden City of Samal in April 2000.
North Cotabato Vice Governor Emmanuel Piñol, whose older brother's wife and two children perished in that crash, said the Lloyd's of London had already agreed to settle the case filed against its client, AAR and Fleet, who is said to be the owner of the plane that was leased to Air Philippines.
Piñol said if everything will push through as planned, the settlement will be the biggest in the country's aviation history. He estimated for each of the families to receive at least $1.2 million indemnification.
It was learned that lawyers from the Nolan Law Group based in the US are already here in Davao City to confer with the victims' families and finalize things. Piñol said that after this, the lawyers will be going back to Chicago to hand out the signed documents from the victims' families to finally settle the case which was filed seven years ago.
He said the final amount of the settlement will be determined by the Chicago court as well as how much each of the families will be receiving. It was learned though that the Nolan Law group will be getting 33% of the total amount of settlement as lawyer's fee.
Piñol thanked the families of the victims for their decision to see the case until the end. As well as the Nolan Law group who persevered in discovering things that could have been kept secret from the victims' families.
Piñol said that though money could not buy back the life of their loved ones it could somehow help the families start a new life.
