by Miriam G. Desacada
Tacloban City–The issue of the still undistributed claims of the heirs of the victims in the Dona Paz tragedy (December 20, 1987) is yet unresolved and continued to this day but now with attendant disturbing incidents.
Nedita Relagio, a businesswoman in Bulacan but a Leyte native whose son was among the victims of the tragedy, yesterday called up the Tacloban media to warn about a questionable gathering in Tanauan town of Leyte where an individual posed as a representative of a group to process the claims of the surviving heirs of the tragedy victims who have yet to receive the settlement money.
Relagio, a founding officer of the Dona Paz Tragedy Claimants Association, Inc.(DPTCAI), told the media that they have not authorized anybody to do so in as much as there was not a schedule for distribution of claims yet at this time because her group, through Congress and the courts, is still recovering the settlement funds to be distributed to the remaining thousands of claimants yet.
Relagio warned the media that the gathering held at Barangay Mohon in Tanauan, Leyte last July 27 was unauthorized. The poser, later identified as a certain Domingo Rallon, just came out of the blue and announced that he was sent to process the Dona Paz claims documents because the money is ready for distribution to them.
To verify the reported Tanauan incident, the Philippine Star proceeded to the Police Station in Tanauan, a town about 15 kilometers from Tacloban City, and inquired about this man Rallon and the gathering he held. The police said they were ordered by the town mayor to go to Mohon in response to a complaint about a commotion in that place at the time.
Police Master Sergeant Jerome Delos Reyes, responding officer of the Tanuan PNP, said they reached the venue where Rallon was already letting some supposed claimants fill in a claim processing form. “There were about more than 50 in that covered court in Mohon, he said, some of them even came from as far as Samar. The policeman also found out that the gathering had no permit from the LGU, much less from the barangay.
Rallon cut short the event and left after talking to the police, even if the police did not stop the gathering because no one complained of it. De los Reyes later learned that Rallon asked from the “claimants” P375 each, allegedly as a processing fee for the release of their claims. Only a few had paid the amount, but the police said they could not do anything about it as of now because no one is complaining about it.
The Philippine Star contacted DPTCAI president Danny Padilla Clores—a Barugo (Leyte) native but now a businessman in Marilao (Bulacan) who is also an unpaid claimant to this day—who responded by saying that he and Relagio do not know who this Rallon is.
Clores said their group has not authorized anybody yet to process the claims of the remaining unpaid claimants, and that they might be filing a case against this Rallon after gathering evidences to back up the case.
Tacloban lawyer Leo Giron, in a live interview with RMN Radio Tacloban, reacted on Rallon’s namedropping him during the Tanauan gathering presumably to lend credence to the announced purpose of the event. “I might sue this Rallon who I am not familiar with, for using my name without my knowledge,” said the lawyer.
In February 2017, Giron was designated by the law firm of Valeriano Del Rosario and Chel Diokno, who represented the now defunct Bulig-bulig Kita Kamag-anak Inc. after US lawyers won the settlement case worth about $27 million to be paid to the claimants.
Giron said his role then was to process the claims of the families of the tragedy victims, as claimants. He accomplished the task of paying off, with the help of bank personnel, around 2,000 claimants at P300,000 each in an event at the Astrodome in Tacloban.
Technically that would be the first batch of claimants because verified records showed that there was a total of more than 3,000 confirmed claimants, so after paying off the 2,000 there are still more than 1,000 claimants that need to be paid also.
These unpaid claimants organized into the now active DPTCAI that is doing everything to get their money. “We are seeking for justice. Where is the rest of the money now because, if not all claimants were paid then where is the remaining money,” Clores asked.
This is now the prevailing issue of the unpaid claimants that DPTCAI represents. “We lost the lives of our beloved relatives. Does it mean that the money intended for the victims’ kin will be lost also? We are now knocking at the doors of Congress to help us,” said Clores, adding that they will elevate this matter to court later on.
Giron remarked that there may be no second batch because the excess money was returned to the US. But Clores disagreed because, based on their investigation, the money is deposited in a bank under the name of a law firm that handled the claims distribution before.
“And this is what we are fighting for: to get that money due to unpaid claimants because the US court had decided before that the money is for all claimants (not just the so-called first batch),” he said, adding that it is not for Diokno or Del Rosario to decide to return the money.
Certainly, the issue of settlement claims for the M/V Dona Paz/MT Vector sea tragedy has been revived, after around six years since the money distribution in Tacloban, and the yet unpaid claimants have a warranted complaint to raise, said Relagio.
Relagio and Clores were saddened however that their path to seek justice is now being muddled by impostors, as in the Tanauan incident. —Miriam G. Desacada