Monday, April 14, 2008 Cotabato vice guv to write book on Flight 541
NORTH Cotabato Vice Governor Emmanuel Piñol is planning to write a book about the victims of Air Philippines Flight 541 that crashed in the Island Garden City of Samal on April 19, 2000.
The book would also focus on the struggle of their families to achieve justice for their kin.
The book is tentatively entitled "Flight of faith, Wings of hope" and will include the story of the victims' families and their struggle against the government and the plane manufacturers, as well as against foreign insurance companies who placed so little value on Filipino lives.
In a meeting with the victims' families here in Davao City Sunday, Piñol said the book would serve as a chronicle of the hardships and pains they encountered while in search for justice.
"It's but proper that we immortalize our struggle for eight years. Not only would we immortalize memories of our loved ones but also come out with a story of a group of people who achieved what many people thought is not achievable," Piñol told the families.
The vice governor recalled how he went to then President Joseph Estrada to secure his signature on the families' request to be furnished with a copy of the maintenance report of the plane.
Piñol said he also went to Chicago to meet with some lawyers there, not knowing that the plane manufacturer and its insurance company are based there. He said that was how their class suit against AAR and Fleet, supplier of the ill-fated plane to Air Philippines, started.
The American company recently agreed to a multi-million dollar settlement for the 110 out of 131 passengers that perished from the crash that happened on a Holy Week.
The Chicago-based law firm Nolan Law Group will be financing the printing of the book that will be authored by Vice Governor Piñol.
Flight 541 is considered as the worst aviation accident in the history of the Philippines and the settlement reached between the victims' families and the supplier is considered the biggest single settlement as well.
Each victim's family is rumored to be receiving at least $1.5 million.
In Nolan Law Group's website, it said the Nolan Law Group along with Sterns & Walker and Bowles & Verna law firms in Northern California led victims' families to a $165 million settlement for the deaths of 131 passengers and crew on Air Philippines Flight 541.
O'Reilly & Danko, another California firm, was also involved in the case.
According to Nolan, "These companies should never have leased the decrepit airplane to Air Philippines, an under-funded and unsafe start-up airline. Yet, more than 100 people died because the leased airplane was regarded as a profitable business venture, in which higher lease payments were gained because the airplane was going to a carrier in the developing world."
"One of the many lessons from this case is that a company leasing an aircraft has a duty to provide oversight to ensure that passengers fly on airliners with the latest equipment, the best maintenance, and finest training available," Nolan declared.
"Attempting to say, 'We leased it and relied on the governmental authorities of foreign countries to assure passenger safety' is not sufficient by a long shot in the United States or Illinois courts. In the future, leasers and owners will need to learn that 'oversight' does not mean to 'overlook.'" (BOT)
