Case of death of worker at resort settled out of court
By Redempto Anda
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:36:00 05/15/2008
Filed Under: Crime, Law & Justice,Regional authorities
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY – An out-of-court settlement over the case of a construction worker who died on New Year’s Eve in the upscale Amanpulo Resort in Cuyo, Palawan, has laid to rest a bizarre probe on a suspected murder and coverup by resort officials.
“It’s difficult to file the case. We could not find strong enough evidence that there was conspiracy,” provincial prosecutor Allen Ross Rodriguez told the Inquirer Wednesday.
The prosecutors who investigated a complaint for murder and obstruction of justice filed by the regional police against the resort manager and several other personnel of the establishment concluded there was not enough evidence to pin the guilt on the management for apparent breaches in handling the death of the construction worker, Rodolfo Abamo.
Abamo was found dead in the workers’ barracks of Amanpulo on Jan. 2.
Police suspected foul play and promptly filed a complaint at the provincial prosecutor’s office.
Last week, the worker’s family, accompanied by resort officials, flew to Palawan to execute an affidavit of desistance.
The withdrawal of Abamo’s wife from the case, made reportedly after the construction company hired by Amanpulo offered a financial settlement package to the family, weakened the case, according to investigators.
Amanpulo management did not respond to the Inquirer’s inquiry into the details of the settlement.
Police earlier theorized that the manager of Amanpulo, a certain Miguel Guedes de Sousa, had ordered Abamo’s body flown out of the island without waiting for police investigators to probe and document the incident.
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