'Just no sense or justice': Daughters hit rock bottom after dad's murderer's botched court case

When Australian businessman David Fisk, his partner Lucita Cortez and her daughter-in-law were tied up and murdered in their Philippines hotel room, his family thought things couldn't get any worse. 

But a year on Fisk's family say they were let down by police a botched court case that could soon see the killer walk free.

The couple and her daughter-in-law Mary Jane Cortez were murdered in a hotel room in the Philippines in July last year. 

READ MORE: Multiple people shot at Mormon church in US

The devastated Fisk family's fight for justice has been traumatic.

"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," daughter Lacinda Fisk exclusively told 9News.

Hotel cleaner and gambling addict Ronel Perido Estipona was recently sentenced for the crime. His punishment for triple murder is a little more than a decade in jail.

Lacinda said the punishment wasn't enough.

"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. 

READ MORE: 'I just want him to come home': Daughter's plea after boat disappears

The family claims the public prosecutor's case was bungled. 

Key witnesses went missing and the murder confession became inadmissible because it wasn't recorded properly. 

Australian officials missed three key court appearances before the Fisks hired their own lawyer.

By then, they were forced to accept a plea deal for homicide, dropping the charge of robbery, which could have boosted 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 said.

"Because what's worse – or what's better –10 years or him walking free?"

The Fisks' lawyer, Derrick Lu, even claims local authorities cut corners in the investigation 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?"

READ MORE: Man found dead in 'brutal and violent' attack at Brisbane shopping centre

The final insult came when Lacinda and her sister, Brittany, arrived at the Philippine consulate to remotely deliver their victim impact statements. 

They were forced to pay hundreds of dollars to rent a room, one of several costs they had to cover with little financial support available for international victims of crime.

Brittany said while most Australians would expect to be supported in a situation like they went through, that wasn't the case.

"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," Lacinda said.

The sisters are now pursuing costs 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.

Sign up here to receive our daily newsletters and breaking news alerts, sent straight to your inbox.