DOJ puts heat on rape van’s driver
By Jomar Canlas, Manila Times Reporter
JUSTICE Secretary Raul M. Gonzalez on Tuesday warned the driver of the van where six US Marines allegedly raped a Filipina that he faces charges of perjury if he withdraws or changes his testimony.
Gonzalez said Timoteo Soriano can be held as an accomplice if he recants his earlier statement of what happened in the van on November 1.
Six US Marines have been charged by the Olongapo City prosecutor with raping a 22-year-old woman whom they met in a karaoke bar in Subic. The woman was later found unconscious on the roadside.
Nationalist groups and militant women’s organizations denounced the alleged rape. At least one senator demanded the scrapping of the Visiting Forces Agreement, which provides the legal framework for cases involving US servicemen taking part in training exercises in the Philippines.
A news report said Soriano had withdrawn his statement, but Jose Calimlim, vice president for operations of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), denied the report.
Gonzalez issued the warning after learning that Soriano had issued two conflicting statements.
He said that besides the witness’s testimony, the physical evidence such as the condom found in the van and the victim’s statement help bolster the case against the Marines.
The victim and the six Marines are expected to meet face to face in the preliminary investigation on November 23 and 29.
The Department of Justice sent the summons for the investigation to the Department of Foreign Affairs, which will serve them on the US Embassy.
Named respondents were Marines Keith Silkwood, Daniel Smith, Albert Lara, Dominic Duplantis, Corey Barris and Chad Capent.
Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said, “The Department of Foreign Affairs will continue to see to it that justice is done in accordance with our laws and treaty obligations.”
The department has also taken steps to help the 22-year-old victim, who is staying at the Subic Bay housing facility.
Undersecretary Zosimo Paredes of the Presidential Committee on the Visiting Forces Agreement has been instructed to go to Olongapo City to check on the six Marines and to provide the victim with assistance.
Paredes went to Olongapo with Social Welfare Acting Secretary Lualhati Pablo.
The US Embassy reassured the DFA that the six soldiers are still in the Philippines and in its custody.
Calimlim of the SBMA said Soriano was more than willing to cooperate with the authorities and is not recanting his statement.
“He did not retract. He simply changed the term ‘gang rape’ in his statement,” Calimlim told DZMM radio.
He said Soriano could have a different interpretation of the term “gang rape” or he misinterpreted what he heard inside the van.
On Monday Rep. Maria Milagrosa Magsaysay of Zambales said Soriano indicated in his statement that only one of the accused raped the Filipina.
Calimlim said even if Serrano recants, his statement would also be used in the trial.
“If he decides to retract, he could be included in the case and his testimony would stand,” he said.
Besides Soriano, Calimlim said authorities also have a group of excursionists as witnesses.
Magsaysay said the prosecution has eight other witnesses besides Serrano.
Calimlim told DZMM that only five of the Marines are in the custody of the US Embassy because Soriano identified only five of them.
“Six were named in the charge sheet but only five were identified, so only five were ordered to disembark the USS Essex,’ Calimlim said.
He said, however, the US authorities assured him that once a subpoena for the six US Marines is issued, all of them will be produced in court.
Calimlim said the case has been turned over to the Department of Justice and all of the pieces of evidence that they have gathered were taken to the Philippine National Police-Crime Laboratory for analysis.
He said the SBMA’s investigation into the case is still going on.
--With Jonathan Vicente and ABS-CBN Interactive
===
VFA suspension if rape case bungled
GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc
The Philippine Star 11/09/2005
The reported gang rape of a Filipina by US Marines in Subic turned instantly into an orgy of sensationalism and sexism. The facts weren’t in yet. It wasn’t even clear if six or five or one serviceman sexually assaulted the lass from Zamboanga. Yet politicians of all stripes felt obliged to weigh in with yells of abrogating the Visiting Forces Agreement to reviewing all US investments in RP. One newspaper bannered that the victim was no sex worker, implying that she would have deserved the rape had she been one. Lawyers inserted threats of perjury raps against the Filipino driver of a van in which the crime was committed, if he recants as sketchy reports claimed. Yet none could explain a gap. If only one soldier did the raping but the rest were implicated for letting it happen, then why was the driver not similarly charged for cruising the van around for 15 minutes while the misdeed was unfolding onboard?
There was a flurry of extreme words too from RP and US authorities. On one hand, the Malacañang spokesman feebly invoked legal process in a land where the term is as abstract as surreal art. On the other, a US embassy aide allegedly confronted demonstrators with an arrogant line that the girl should’ve known what she was getting into by bar hopping with rednecks and then riding a van with them unescorted. Coupled with the politicians’ and press excesses, such words leave a public frustrated that justice will not be served.
To be sure, the US embassy has a duty to protect its boys in uniform. Their fighting men are their enforcers of security and foreign policy. Then again, the US has its own justice system. The VFA contains parts of it in that the military accord does not condone crime by US servicemen, and allows prosecution of such under RP laws. But the system also requires adequate defense for the accused, and protection from street mobs. It calls for parallel court martial of offenders, for the US wouldn’t want rapists loose in its own territory and prowling for new American victims. It is in the US interest to get to the bottom of the rape case.
Add to that the dire consequences of justice unmet. An upset Filipino public can incite officials to protagonist populism. If accused of failing to assert RP sovereignty, Malacañang may save face by suspending the VFA for a year, the same period required to resolve a serviceman’s crime. That could spell big losses for Filipinos who make good business supplying the US military with food and other essentials. But the effects on America would be graver.
Law dean Amado Valdez says the VFA allows unilateral suspension by any side. The effect on the US would be both geopolitical and financial. As VFA Commission executive director in 2002-2003, Valdez found out that the US uses the pact for training not only of active servicemen but reservists too. A year’s deferment would thus result to logistical bottlenecks in long-planned dispatches of military units to various war playgrounds in RP. It would be costly and inopportune to redeploy them to other countries with similar VFAs.
On top of that is the very point of a VFA with RP, says Valdez, which is to project US might in this part of the globe. Suspension would send US soldiers sailing out of Southeast Asia, and even heighten pressure for them to vacate military bases in Northern Asia. A rape-murder of an Okinawa teenager in 1995 had strained US-Japan relations. Since then, occasional sexual assaults, frequent aircraft noise, and unforgotten War casualties (a third of the island’s population died during the US conquest) have had Japanese calling for US departure. "The US will want to avoid all this," Valdez notes, "so they should satisfy RP demands." The US solicits token support from RP in the Iraq War and in the UN Security Council, but the VFA is the real ballgame.
Flexing RP muscle is easier said than done, though. Valdez reveals that in implementing the VFA, the government assigns only the Philippine military to arrange the schedules of US troop arrivals. That is because the AFP is starved for new war knowledge and technology, which it hopes to acquire from the VFA even if vicariously. "Our VFA negotiating panel does not have political officers embedded to assert other RP interests, political or financial," Valdez rues.
Still, the rape will be a test case for both US and RP. For purely legal reasons, proper handling can avoid repeats in the future. More than that, satisfactory resolution could avoid imponderable moves by any side. * * *
The Teodoro R. Yangco Memorial Foundation celebrates today the 144th birthday of its founder with the unveiling of a marker at his Zambales hometown of San Antonio. Simple rites will recall Don Teodoro’s works for the poor and unwed mothers, and as head of the early Associated Charities of Manila and the Anti-Tuberculosis Society.
Born on Nov. 9, 1861, Don Teodoro found fame and fortune in vast interests in sea and land transportation, banking and trading. More than his business success, he was noted for philanthropy. Among these: donations of land and money to erect the YMCA building and the Gota de Leche (now a National Heritage site), and founding the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Schooled in the Ateneo, University of Sto. Tomas, and London School of Economics, Don Teodoro in 1917 was elected Resident Commissioner to the United States, and served as director of Liceo de Manila and the Economic Association of the Philippine Islands.
Shortly before he died on Apr. 20, 1939 at age 78, Don Teodoro set up the Foundation. For more info, contact the TRYMF office at (02) 7269676
===
Mother of alleged Subic rape victim vows to pursue case
Associated Press
THE MOTHER of a Filipino woman allegedly raped by six US Marines who were in the country for counterterrorism exercises said Wednesday they will pursue the case and sought help from a lawmaker.
The six US Marines have been summoned by a government prosecutor to reply to the allegation. The complaint said the woman was raped in a moving van on November 1 at the Subic Bay free port, a former US naval base about 80 kilometers northwest of Manila.
In a letter to Senator Richard Gordon, who was an administrator of the free port, the woman's mother said the family was "very much aware of the consequences that we have to face" but needed legal assistance and "professional help" to cope with the ordeal.
Gordon said he has gotten three lawyers and the Red Cross to assist the woman.
"The victim and her family can be rest assured that they will be given top brass and brilliant lawyers to make sure that truth and justice will prevail," Gordon said.
The mother wrote that her daughter's ordeal of "living with fear, depression and humiliation is indeed very painful" and that she agonized watching her daughter's "moments of torment and despair."
In an interview with GMA television, she said: "This is my daughter's life, that's why I will fight for it."
The US Embassy has refused to confirm the identities of the Marines or their unit, but promised to fully cooperate in the investigation.
Also Wednesday, left-wing legislators filed a resolution seeking to abrogate the Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States, which allows American troops to train in the country and governs the treatment of those who run afoul of the law.
The alleged assault has cast a shadow on annual war exercises, which have been credited with helping rout Muslim extremists.
In their resolution, three representatives from the left-wing Bayan Muna party said stumbling blocks to victims seeking justice include a provision in the accord giving the US Embassy custody of erring American soldiers, and another saying judicial proceedings must be completed within a year --after that, the US government would be under no obligation to turn them over for proceedings.
It also claimed Philippine sovereignty was undermined by the agreement by circumventing a constitutional ban on the presence of foreign troops and bases in the country.
US Embassy spokesman Matthew Lussenhop has defended the accord, saying it has benefited security forces of both countries and provides the legal framework for incidents like the alleged rape.
===
Philippines should have custody of US Marines in rape case
INQ7.net
THE recent rape case in Subic yields lots of witnesses, including the driver of those Marines involved. It is as simple as: A crime was committed, and somebody committed it.
Whether or not it was gang rape, everyone in that van was an accomplice, including the driver, who did nothing to stop the crime from being committed.
Whether or not the woman was a prostitute, those Marines violated her dignity and definitely committed a crime.
Therefore, the suspects should be in the custody of the Philippine law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction over the area where the crime was committed.
JHUN PACIS PASATIEMPO, Panayunan, Botolan, Zambales (via e-mail)
===
Junking the RP-US accord due to rape incident an overreaction: Biazon
Senator Rodolfo Biazon declared Wednesday that junking the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) on the basis of the alleged rape of a Filipina in Olongapo is "an over-reaction" that may affect the Philippines' national interest and the country’s military capability.
Biazon, who chairs the the Senate Committee on National Defense and Security, said, "It should not be our primary option in addressing the issue of US servicemen who are suspected of gang-raping a woman while they were on shore leave."
He pointed out the VFA provides a framework for the presence of US military troops engaged in joint exercises with the Armed Forces of the Philippines within the country, noting that "these military exercises are a necessity in upgrading and maintaining the competence, capability and readiness of our troops."
"In the light of our limited resources and the need for military inter-operability with our allies, the joint exercises provide our soldiers with the exposure and experience in joint operations, modern military hardware and tactics, and strengthen bonds with nations allied with the Philippines," he said.
Because of this, the former military chief of staff said, "To abandon these activities would be to compromise national security interests especially in the face of global threats such as terrorism. Particularly in our part of the world, nations conduct joint military exercises with each other to enhance cooperation and regional security."
Biazon noted that, "The rape incident is deplorable and should be condemned to the highest heavens. But to abrogate the VFA and ban the exercises may be an over-reaction. If we follow the principle behind the abrogation, does it mean to say that we should also ban tourists from other countries whenever their nationals commit crimes in the Philippines?"
"What we should push for is the complete jurisdiction and custody of the suspects who should face justice and the full extent of the law here in the Philippines. The VFA allows that, but the Philippine government should exert all efforts to convince the United States to turn the soldiers over to Philippine authorities," he declared.
If this arrangement is not arrived at, then a review of the terms of the VFA may be in order, to come up with possible amendments, Biazon said and pointed out that only if these options are exhausted is an abrogation called for.
JUSTICE Secretary Raul M. Gonzalez on Tuesday warned the driver of the van where six US Marines allegedly raped a Filipina that he faces charges of perjury if he withdraws or changes his testimony.
Gonzalez said Timoteo Soriano can be held as an accomplice if he recants his earlier statement of what happened in the van on November 1.
Six US Marines have been charged by the Olongapo City prosecutor with raping a 22-year-old woman whom they met in a karaoke bar in Subic. The woman was later found unconscious on the roadside.
Nationalist groups and militant women’s organizations denounced the alleged rape. At least one senator demanded the scrapping of the Visiting Forces Agreement, which provides the legal framework for cases involving US servicemen taking part in training exercises in the Philippines.
A news report said Soriano had withdrawn his statement, but Jose Calimlim, vice president for operations of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), denied the report.
Gonzalez issued the warning after learning that Soriano had issued two conflicting statements.
He said that besides the witness’s testimony, the physical evidence such as the condom found in the van and the victim’s statement help bolster the case against the Marines.
The victim and the six Marines are expected to meet face to face in the preliminary investigation on November 23 and 29.
The Department of Justice sent the summons for the investigation to the Department of Foreign Affairs, which will serve them on the US Embassy.
Named respondents were Marines Keith Silkwood, Daniel Smith, Albert Lara, Dominic Duplantis, Corey Barris and Chad Capent.
Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said, “The Department of Foreign Affairs will continue to see to it that justice is done in accordance with our laws and treaty obligations.”
The department has also taken steps to help the 22-year-old victim, who is staying at the Subic Bay housing facility.
Undersecretary Zosimo Paredes of the Presidential Committee on the Visiting Forces Agreement has been instructed to go to Olongapo City to check on the six Marines and to provide the victim with assistance.
Paredes went to Olongapo with Social Welfare Acting Secretary Lualhati Pablo.
The US Embassy reassured the DFA that the six soldiers are still in the Philippines and in its custody.
Calimlim of the SBMA said Soriano was more than willing to cooperate with the authorities and is not recanting his statement.
“He did not retract. He simply changed the term ‘gang rape’ in his statement,” Calimlim told DZMM radio.
He said Soriano could have a different interpretation of the term “gang rape” or he misinterpreted what he heard inside the van.
On Monday Rep. Maria Milagrosa Magsaysay of Zambales said Soriano indicated in his statement that only one of the accused raped the Filipina.
Calimlim said even if Serrano recants, his statement would also be used in the trial.
“If he decides to retract, he could be included in the case and his testimony would stand,” he said.
Besides Soriano, Calimlim said authorities also have a group of excursionists as witnesses.
Magsaysay said the prosecution has eight other witnesses besides Serrano.
Calimlim told DZMM that only five of the Marines are in the custody of the US Embassy because Soriano identified only five of them.
“Six were named in the charge sheet but only five were identified, so only five were ordered to disembark the USS Essex,’ Calimlim said.
He said, however, the US authorities assured him that once a subpoena for the six US Marines is issued, all of them will be produced in court.
Calimlim said the case has been turned over to the Department of Justice and all of the pieces of evidence that they have gathered were taken to the Philippine National Police-Crime Laboratory for analysis.
He said the SBMA’s investigation into the case is still going on.
--With Jonathan Vicente and ABS-CBN Interactive
===
VFA suspension if rape case bungled
GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc
The Philippine Star 11/09/2005
The reported gang rape of a Filipina by US Marines in Subic turned instantly into an orgy of sensationalism and sexism. The facts weren’t in yet. It wasn’t even clear if six or five or one serviceman sexually assaulted the lass from Zamboanga. Yet politicians of all stripes felt obliged to weigh in with yells of abrogating the Visiting Forces Agreement to reviewing all US investments in RP. One newspaper bannered that the victim was no sex worker, implying that she would have deserved the rape had she been one. Lawyers inserted threats of perjury raps against the Filipino driver of a van in which the crime was committed, if he recants as sketchy reports claimed. Yet none could explain a gap. If only one soldier did the raping but the rest were implicated for letting it happen, then why was the driver not similarly charged for cruising the van around for 15 minutes while the misdeed was unfolding onboard?
There was a flurry of extreme words too from RP and US authorities. On one hand, the Malacañang spokesman feebly invoked legal process in a land where the term is as abstract as surreal art. On the other, a US embassy aide allegedly confronted demonstrators with an arrogant line that the girl should’ve known what she was getting into by bar hopping with rednecks and then riding a van with them unescorted. Coupled with the politicians’ and press excesses, such words leave a public frustrated that justice will not be served.
To be sure, the US embassy has a duty to protect its boys in uniform. Their fighting men are their enforcers of security and foreign policy. Then again, the US has its own justice system. The VFA contains parts of it in that the military accord does not condone crime by US servicemen, and allows prosecution of such under RP laws. But the system also requires adequate defense for the accused, and protection from street mobs. It calls for parallel court martial of offenders, for the US wouldn’t want rapists loose in its own territory and prowling for new American victims. It is in the US interest to get to the bottom of the rape case.
Add to that the dire consequences of justice unmet. An upset Filipino public can incite officials to protagonist populism. If accused of failing to assert RP sovereignty, Malacañang may save face by suspending the VFA for a year, the same period required to resolve a serviceman’s crime. That could spell big losses for Filipinos who make good business supplying the US military with food and other essentials. But the effects on America would be graver.
Law dean Amado Valdez says the VFA allows unilateral suspension by any side. The effect on the US would be both geopolitical and financial. As VFA Commission executive director in 2002-2003, Valdez found out that the US uses the pact for training not only of active servicemen but reservists too. A year’s deferment would thus result to logistical bottlenecks in long-planned dispatches of military units to various war playgrounds in RP. It would be costly and inopportune to redeploy them to other countries with similar VFAs.
On top of that is the very point of a VFA with RP, says Valdez, which is to project US might in this part of the globe. Suspension would send US soldiers sailing out of Southeast Asia, and even heighten pressure for them to vacate military bases in Northern Asia. A rape-murder of an Okinawa teenager in 1995 had strained US-Japan relations. Since then, occasional sexual assaults, frequent aircraft noise, and unforgotten War casualties (a third of the island’s population died during the US conquest) have had Japanese calling for US departure. "The US will want to avoid all this," Valdez notes, "so they should satisfy RP demands." The US solicits token support from RP in the Iraq War and in the UN Security Council, but the VFA is the real ballgame.
Flexing RP muscle is easier said than done, though. Valdez reveals that in implementing the VFA, the government assigns only the Philippine military to arrange the schedules of US troop arrivals. That is because the AFP is starved for new war knowledge and technology, which it hopes to acquire from the VFA even if vicariously. "Our VFA negotiating panel does not have political officers embedded to assert other RP interests, political or financial," Valdez rues.
Still, the rape will be a test case for both US and RP. For purely legal reasons, proper handling can avoid repeats in the future. More than that, satisfactory resolution could avoid imponderable moves by any side. * * *
The Teodoro R. Yangco Memorial Foundation celebrates today the 144th birthday of its founder with the unveiling of a marker at his Zambales hometown of San Antonio. Simple rites will recall Don Teodoro’s works for the poor and unwed mothers, and as head of the early Associated Charities of Manila and the Anti-Tuberculosis Society.
Born on Nov. 9, 1861, Don Teodoro found fame and fortune in vast interests in sea and land transportation, banking and trading. More than his business success, he was noted for philanthropy. Among these: donations of land and money to erect the YMCA building and the Gota de Leche (now a National Heritage site), and founding the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Schooled in the Ateneo, University of Sto. Tomas, and London School of Economics, Don Teodoro in 1917 was elected Resident Commissioner to the United States, and served as director of Liceo de Manila and the Economic Association of the Philippine Islands.
Shortly before he died on Apr. 20, 1939 at age 78, Don Teodoro set up the Foundation. For more info, contact the TRYMF office at (02) 7269676
===
Mother of alleged Subic rape victim vows to pursue case
Associated Press
THE MOTHER of a Filipino woman allegedly raped by six US Marines who were in the country for counterterrorism exercises said Wednesday they will pursue the case and sought help from a lawmaker.
The six US Marines have been summoned by a government prosecutor to reply to the allegation. The complaint said the woman was raped in a moving van on November 1 at the Subic Bay free port, a former US naval base about 80 kilometers northwest of Manila.
In a letter to Senator Richard Gordon, who was an administrator of the free port, the woman's mother said the family was "very much aware of the consequences that we have to face" but needed legal assistance and "professional help" to cope with the ordeal.
Gordon said he has gotten three lawyers and the Red Cross to assist the woman.
"The victim and her family can be rest assured that they will be given top brass and brilliant lawyers to make sure that truth and justice will prevail," Gordon said.
The mother wrote that her daughter's ordeal of "living with fear, depression and humiliation is indeed very painful" and that she agonized watching her daughter's "moments of torment and despair."
In an interview with GMA television, she said: "This is my daughter's life, that's why I will fight for it."
The US Embassy has refused to confirm the identities of the Marines or their unit, but promised to fully cooperate in the investigation.
Also Wednesday, left-wing legislators filed a resolution seeking to abrogate the Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States, which allows American troops to train in the country and governs the treatment of those who run afoul of the law.
The alleged assault has cast a shadow on annual war exercises, which have been credited with helping rout Muslim extremists.
In their resolution, three representatives from the left-wing Bayan Muna party said stumbling blocks to victims seeking justice include a provision in the accord giving the US Embassy custody of erring American soldiers, and another saying judicial proceedings must be completed within a year --after that, the US government would be under no obligation to turn them over for proceedings.
It also claimed Philippine sovereignty was undermined by the agreement by circumventing a constitutional ban on the presence of foreign troops and bases in the country.
US Embassy spokesman Matthew Lussenhop has defended the accord, saying it has benefited security forces of both countries and provides the legal framework for incidents like the alleged rape.
===
Philippines should have custody of US Marines in rape case
INQ7.net
THE recent rape case in Subic yields lots of witnesses, including the driver of those Marines involved. It is as simple as: A crime was committed, and somebody committed it.
Whether or not it was gang rape, everyone in that van was an accomplice, including the driver, who did nothing to stop the crime from being committed.
Whether or not the woman was a prostitute, those Marines violated her dignity and definitely committed a crime.
Therefore, the suspects should be in the custody of the Philippine law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction over the area where the crime was committed.
JHUN PACIS PASATIEMPO, Panayunan, Botolan, Zambales (via e-mail)
===
Junking the RP-US accord due to rape incident an overreaction: Biazon
Senator Rodolfo Biazon declared Wednesday that junking the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) on the basis of the alleged rape of a Filipina in Olongapo is "an over-reaction" that may affect the Philippines' national interest and the country’s military capability.
Biazon, who chairs the the Senate Committee on National Defense and Security, said, "It should not be our primary option in addressing the issue of US servicemen who are suspected of gang-raping a woman while they were on shore leave."
He pointed out the VFA provides a framework for the presence of US military troops engaged in joint exercises with the Armed Forces of the Philippines within the country, noting that "these military exercises are a necessity in upgrading and maintaining the competence, capability and readiness of our troops."
"In the light of our limited resources and the need for military inter-operability with our allies, the joint exercises provide our soldiers with the exposure and experience in joint operations, modern military hardware and tactics, and strengthen bonds with nations allied with the Philippines," he said.
Because of this, the former military chief of staff said, "To abandon these activities would be to compromise national security interests especially in the face of global threats such as terrorism. Particularly in our part of the world, nations conduct joint military exercises with each other to enhance cooperation and regional security."
Biazon noted that, "The rape incident is deplorable and should be condemned to the highest heavens. But to abrogate the VFA and ban the exercises may be an over-reaction. If we follow the principle behind the abrogation, does it mean to say that we should also ban tourists from other countries whenever their nationals commit crimes in the Philippines?"
"What we should push for is the complete jurisdiction and custody of the suspects who should face justice and the full extent of the law here in the Philippines. The VFA allows that, but the Philippine government should exert all efforts to convince the United States to turn the soldiers over to Philippine authorities," he declared.
If this arrangement is not arrived at, then a review of the terms of the VFA may be in order, to come up with possible amendments, Biazon said and pointed out that only if these options are exhausted is an abrogation called for.
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