Sun.Star Cebu

Parents to file more charges vs. multinatio­nal firm

- / SUNSTAR PHILIPPINE­S

The parents of the partygoers who died during the rave party organized by Unilever are set to file additional charges with the Department of Justice (DOJ) against the multinatio­nal company’s executives, whom they claimed were responsibl­e for the deaths that happened in May of last year.

Ariel Leal, Ken Miyagawa, Bianca Fontejon, Lance Garcia and Eric Anthony Miller all died due to drug use during the Close Up Forever Summer Concert party.

According to lawyers Ariel Radovan and Raul Vasquez, the legal counsels for the parents of Leal, Miyagawa and Fontejon, their clients will file additional complaints to strengthen the case of criminal liability against the top officials of Unilever.

“The investigat­ing prosecutor allowed us to file pleadings in order to flesh out, support, amplify and probably include allegation­s that would indicate the individual participat­ion of each and every of the respondent depending on our reassessme­nt of the evidence in record,” Vasquez said in an interview last Friday.

Lawyer Radovan, on the other hand, refuted the claims of Unilever that they do not have any criminal liability over the tragedy as the deaths of the five did not have any “logical link” or connection to Unilever.

“On the part of the complainan­ts and the NBI (National Bureau of Investigat­ion), we just want to prove one thing: that through negligence, through lack of skill, lack of foresight and precaution that led to the death of the decedents because of the drugs that [ended up] inside the concert,” Radovan said.

The NBI has already filed charges with the DOJ against Unilever bosses 10 months after the tragedy happened.

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