A lawyer for the family of Salvador "Bubby" Dacer on Friday said that the daughters of the slain publicist have filed a US$ 120-million civil suit against former President Joseph Estrada, fugitive Senator Panfilo Lacson and several others at a Northern District court in the State of California.
Lawyer Demetrio Custodio, Dacer family's legal counsel, told a regular media forum, “Friday Balitaan sa Hotel Rembrandt,†in Quezon City that sisters Carina, Sabina and Amparo Dacer, who are residing in US, filed the civil case under the Alien Tort Claims Act and the Torture Victim Protection Act of the US Code for the cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment, torture and extra-judicial killing of their father as well as his driver, Emmauel Corbito.
Besides Estrada and Lacson, also named respondents in the civil suit are businessman Dante Tan; former Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) chief executive Reynaldo Tenorio; former police colonels Michael Ray Aquino and Glenn Dumlao, Chief Insp. Vicente Arnado and 100 John Does.
Custodio said that the Dacer sisters were asking for US$ 20 million as compensatory damages and US$ 100 million as punitive damages.
He said that a civil procedure differs from a criminal procedure.
The standards of proof are higher in a criminal case than in a civil one, since the state does not wish to risk punishing an innocent person, he said.
In a criminal case a crime cannot be proven if the person or persons judging it doubt the guilt of the suspect and have a reason (not just a feeling or intuition) for this doubt.
However, in a civil action, the plaintiff is required to prove his case “on the balance of probabilitiesâ€. Thus, in a civil case, the court will weigh all the evidence and decide what is most probable.
Custodio said that should the case prosper, known properties, including bank accounts, of the defendants in the US can be used as restitution. (PNA)
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