When Australian businessman David Fisk, his partner Lucita Cortez, and her daughter-in-law Mary Jane Cortez were tied up and murdered in their hotel room in the Philippines, his family thought things couldn’t get any worse. But a year on, the Fisk family says they were let down by the police and a botched court case that could soon see the killer walk free.
The tragic murders occurred in a hotel room in the Philippines in July last year. Since then, the devastated Fisk family’s fight for justice has been a traumatic journey.
“There’s not a moment that I don’t think about what happened in that room, and there’s not a moment that I don’t think about how this will affect us for the rest of our lives,” David Fisk’s daughter, Lacinda Fisk, exclusively told 9News.
Hotel cleaner and gambling addict Ronel Perido Estipona was recently sentenced for the crime. However, his punishment for the triple murder was little more than a decade in jail. Lacinda expressed her disappointment with the sentence.
“It just feels like they wanted to close it, finish it off as quickly as possible, and there’s just no sense or justice to it,” she said.
The family claims the public prosecutor’s case was bungled from the start. Key witnesses went missing, and the murder confession became inadmissible because it wasn’t recorded properly.
Adding to their frustration, Australian officials missed three key court appearances before the Fisk family hired their own lawyer. By that time, they were forced to accept a plea deal for homicide, dropping the robbery charge which could have increased the sentence to up to 40 years.
“It’s this weird parallel, like, dad had his hands tied and so did we, because the system just didn’t allow us to fight any harder,” Lacinda explained. “Because what’s worse or what’s better — 10 years or him walking free?”
The Fisks’ lawyer, Derrick Lu, also claims local authorities cut corners during the investigation in order to save face with the public.
“This mayor presented him to the public and paraded him and said that this case has already been solved,” he said. “However, of course, behind it is, what kind of evidence do they have against this person?”
Adding insult to injury, Lacinda and her sister Brittany were forced to pay hundreds of dollars to rent a room at the Philippine consulate just to remotely deliver their victim impact statements. This was one of several costs they had to cover, with little financial support available for international victims of crime.
Brittany expressed her disappointment with the lack of support: “I often question, what’s the point of having an embassy in a country if there’s a lack of communication and a lack of drive and a lack of effort to coordinate efforts.”
Now, the sisters are pursuing legal action against the Lake Hotel in Tagaytay for negligence.
“I do hope that someday, somehow someone may come forward with more truth, more answers, but I’m not holding out hope,” Lacinda said.
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https://www.9news.com.au/world/david-fisk-lucita-cortez-and-mary-jane-cortez-murder-daughters-nightmare-over-botched-court-case-botched/4bead51c-9113-43a8-a530-4007b1bc8ecf
