Joint congressional panel hears Subic rape case today
By Maricel V. Cruz, Manila Times Reporter
THE joint oversight committee of the House of Representatives and the Senate will conduct today an inquiry into the rape case involving six American soldiers in Freeport Subic on November 1.
Rep. Antonio Cuenco of Cebu, chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said the resource persons include Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, Justice Secretary Raul M. Gonzalez, the head of the executive committee for the Visiting Forces Agreement Sosimo Paredes and the victim’s lawyer, Katrina Legarda.
Cuenco also said that the committee invited the driver, Timoteo Soriano Jr. whose van was hired by the soldiers, to testify.
The six Marines who had joined a recently concluded training exercise in Subic are in the custody of the US Embassy.
Diplomats said the soldier will be presented in court once charges are formally filed.
The case has led to calls from the political opposition and nationalist groups for the abolition of the Visiting Forces Agreement, which defines the legal framework for American troops taking part in military maneuvers in the Philippines.
The VFA protects US soldiers from prosecution for actions that are part of the war games, but provides less protection for crimes committed while on leave.
Cuenco said that the probe will focus on who will take custody of the US servicemen from the initial hearings up to the trial proper. The inquiry also touches on the one-year deadline for the resolution of the crime involving US servicemen
===
DOJ: Subic rape case transfer to Manila is last resort
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez on Thursday said he is holding off transferring the rape case involving six US marines from Subic to Manila as a last resort.
"The last recourse is to transfer the case to Manila but not now when [proceedings] have not yet started," Gonzalez told DZMM.
Lawyer Katrina Legarda, counsel for the 22-year-old alleged victim, has requested the Department of Justice to hold the preliminary investigation at the DOJ in Manila.
Gonzalez said preliminary investigations must first start to give the fiscal "a chance to prove that he can handle the case assigned to him."
"[Olongapo City Prosecutor's Office] has jurisdiction over the case because the crime [allegedly] happened there," he said.
He said a case is usually transferred to another venue when there are circumstances that prevents the parties to with the prosecution such as when there is threat to the security of any party involved.
Gonzalez also scored criticisms that he coddled the suspects by allowing their transfer of custody to the US Embassy. Legarda earlier accused Gonzalez of allowing the transfer after receiving a call from American officials.
"I have never talked to anyone from the US Embassy from the time the case was reported up to now," Gonzalez said.
"Legarda must have been hallucinating and she's talking about all deals, which she does not know about," he added.
Gonzalez said it is important to gather all pieces of evidence against the suspects for the case to succeed.
The Department of Foreign Affairs formally notified the US Embassy in Manila to require the six accused US Marines to appear in court for the preliminary hearing of charges that they raped a 22-year-old Filipina on November 1 in Subic Freeport.
Named in the subpoena were US Marines Keith Silkwood, Daniel Smith, Albert Lara, Dominic Duplantis, Corey Barris and Chad Carpenter.
On Thursday, the joint oversight committee of the House of Representatives and the Senate will conduct an inquiry into the rape case involving the US marines November 1.
The resource persons include Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, head of the executive committee for the Visiting Forces Agreement Sosimo Paredes and Legarda.
===
DoJ chief dares lawyer to prove he coddled 6 GIs
By Tetch Torres INQ7.net
JUSTICE Secretary Raul Gonzalez dared lawyer Katrina Legarda to prove that he prevented the immediate prosecution of the six US marines accused of rape by ordering their transfer to the US embassy's custody on Nov. 2.
"I dare Katrina Legarda to prove her accusations. If she can prove it, I will resign," Gonzalez told INQ7.
"But if she cannot, she has to resign from the case and surrender her license because she violated our ethical rules for telling such a lie," he added.
Legarda is the lawyer of the 22-year old victim allegedly raped by the six US servicemen.
Gonzalez said he has never spoken to any US embassy official or any US official about the incident.
He pointed that Legarda should have asked Jose Calimlim, Deputy Administrator of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) about the transfer of the six American servicemen to the US embassy.
After knowing about the incident through Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Gonzalez said he called Calimlim and instructed him to hold the suspects so that the Olongapo prosecutors can conduct the inquest proceedings.
"But when the prosecutors got there, Calimlim already turn them over to the US embassy," he said
===
Human Face : Rape a violent crime of conquest
By Ma. Ceres P. Doyo Inquirer News Service
"Man's discovery that his genitalia could serve as a weapon to generate fear must rank as one of the most important discoveries of prehistoric times. From prehistoric times to the present, rape has played a critical function. It is a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear."
-Susan Brownmiller, "Against Our Will"
STEREOTYPICAL RAPE SCENES AS DEPICTED in movies and komiks do happen in real life. Ginahasa sa cogonan (raped amid tall grass) or ginahasa sa sagingan (raped in a banana grove) aren't imaginary scenes used to simply add color to lewd narratives; they actually and quite commonly take place in those proverbial places.
Tricycle drivers waylaying and then raping their young passengers have become stereotypical. Not that tricycle drivers are generally the raping kind. Maybe they just easily make it to the news because they have nowhere to run. They end up beaten up by the victims' kin at police stations and in front of TV cameras, unlike the powerful types who could run away aboard their SUVs.
US servicemen raping "the natives'' should now be stereotypical, too, if we go by the statistics that Sen. Francis Pangilinan cited--3,000 rape cases against Americans have been dismissed in the Olongapo City court. I would presume that the cases were mostly against uniformed men.
Lawyer Katrina Legarda (who sent a congressman to jail for raping a minor) is handling the case of the young woman allegedly raped by five US soldiers last Nov. 1. She has reason to worry and seek the transfer of the case to Manila.
There have been reactions to the media's stress on the fact that the victim was not, repeat, not a sex worker. Women's groups have repeatedly pointed out that prostitute or not, drunk or not, a woman does not deserve to be raped. The Inquirer had clarified that the headline stating the victim was not a sex worker was merely a quoted reaction to an American's argument that the victim had it coming.
Years ago, I went to Bilibid's Death Row to interview prisoners on the rape that they had been convicted of. Of the 11 I interviewed, only two owned up. I could get so lucky. Facing the prospect of death (the death penalty had then been revived) or a long life behind bars didn't seem to change their views.
"But I paid her,'' related Alex (not his real name), 38, a convicted rapist serving his sentence (reclusion perpetua). Alex said it rather casually, with nary a hint of remorse or indignation. He seemed to have accepted his prison sentence with resignation.
Alex, a jeepney driver, raped Nina, a 13-year-old schoolgirl, inside a jeepney parked in a cogon field. "I was plying the Cubao-Antipolo route,'' Alex narrated. "I picked up many passengers along the way and as I was nearing Antipolo, the passengers started to get off one by one. It was late in the afternoon and it was raining.
"When I reached the end of my route I noticed this schoolgirl who hadn't gotten off. She had taken the wrong jeep. She asked me for directions, where she could take a ride back. I said I'd bring her to a waiting station.''
Alex didn't. He brought her to a cogon field. According to him, he parked his jeepney and offered the girl money-P50-if she would have sex with him. She refused repeatedly. "Later, she consented,'' Alex said. He didn't have to force her, he claimed. It took all of 10 minutes.
Alex drove back to town with the girl who was near tears. He remembered dropping her off in front of a restaurant. Unknown to him, the girl sought the help of the restaurant owner who lost no time and brought the girl to the police. A few weeks later Alex was nabbed.
Alex and 11 other men were lined up before the victim for identification, but Nina failed to identify her rapist. The lineup was reduced to six, then to three and then to two. Still Nina could not identify the rapist. "It was when I spoke that she identified me,'' Alex said. "She recognized my voice.''
Alex pleaded not guilty to the charge of rape, arguing that the victim had accepted the money. But he was found guilty just the same. It was proven that Alex had sex with Nina against her consent. She may not have had the telltale signs of struggle to ward off her molester, but Nina's lawyers argued that she had been intimidated and she ran the risk of being harmed had she refused.
And why did Alex do it? "It just suddenly entered my head.'' It wasn't premeditated. He's had nights out with prostitutes, he told me, and so it wasn't as if he was so "starved.'' But, he wanted a virgin, he added. And what did Alex think of women in general? "They are weaker than men,'' he answered. Violence against women has been perennially committed because of that thinking.
Rape is no longer a "private crime.'' The Anti-Rape Law of 1997 classifies rape as "a crime against persons." For so long, rape had been considered merely as "a crime against chastity.'' This seemed to suggest that persons who were unchaste were fair game.
The crime of rape should have nothing to do with the chastity of the victim. Rape is not merely a sexual offense or a crime against chastity but a crime against persons and against the State. As one feminist lawyer said, "Rape is not a crime against the hymen. It is a crime against the whole person.''
It is a crime of the strong against the weak, a crime of conquest. Speaking of conquest, the rape of a 22-year-old Filipina in Subic last Nov. 1 takes on a metaphorical color because the alleged perpetrators are citizens of a former colonizing nation.
We will be watching. We wish Katrina Legarda and her legal team strength of heart, endurance, light.
===
Philstar EDITORIAL - VFA: Dagdag antak sa dati nang sugat
HINDI na bagong balita ang pagkaka-rape sa 22-anyos na Pinay ng anim na sundalong Amerikano sa Subic noong November 1. Noon pa, noong hindi pa isinasara ang Subic Naval Base sa Olongapo at ang Clark Air Base sa Pampanga, marami nang paglabag sa karapatang pantao at pag-alipusta sa mga Pinoy ang mga sundalong Kano. Hindi na bago ang pangre-rape sa mga Pinay sapagkat may naitalang 80 kaso ng panggagahasa noong hindi pa sarado ang dalawang American bases. At sa kabila nang maraming kaso ng panggagahasa, ni isa ay walang nakamit na hustisya ang mga kawawang Pinay. Kasabay sa pagkawala ng mga American bases nawala na rin ang pag-asang makakamit ng hustisya.
At panibagong dagdag na antak sa sugat ang pangre-rape ng anim na Sundalong Kano sa isang Pinay. Nasa custody ng US Embassy ang anim na sundalo at nakatakda ang preliminary hearing sa November 23. Si Atty. Katrina Legarda ang abogado ng ni-rape na Pinay. Ang anim na sundalo ay sina Daniel Smith, Corey Burris, Keith Silkwood, Chad Carpenter, Dominic Duplantis at Albert Lara, Ayon sa report, ang Pinay na ni-rape ay isang college graduate mula sa Zamboanga at kaya nasa Subic ay sinamahan ang kanyang stepsister na makikipagkita sa boyfriend nito. Nakitang nakikipagsayaw ang Pinay sa isa sa mga sundalo sa bar. Pagkalipas ng ilang oras ay lumabas ang sundalo kasama ang Pinay at sumakay sa isang rented van na ang nagmamaneho ay isang Pinoy. Makaraan pa ang ilang oras, nakitang ibinaba ang babae sa isang lugar at doon naman siya nakita ng mga nagpapatrulyang pulis. Naka-panty na lamang ang Pinay, tuliro at naghi-hysterical. Dinala ang babae sa ospital at ang kasunod ay ang rebelasyon ng mga sinapit niya sa anim na sundalong Kano. Humihingi ng hustisya ang Pinay. Nanawagan na ang kanyang ina kay President Arroyo na tulungan ang kanyang anak sa sinapit sa anim na manyakis.
Walumpong kaso ng panggagahasa ang nagawa ng mga Kano at wala pang naigawad na hustisya. Ganito rin kaya ang mangyari sa ginahasang Pinay? Huwag naman sana. Masyado nang nabababoy ang mga Pinay. Humihingi ng hustisya ang ginahasang Pinay at hindi dapat pabayaan. Panahon na rin para i-terminate ang Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) na mula nang ipatupad ang war exercise ay marami nang nilabag ang mga sundalong Kano. Ilang Pinoy na ang kanilang binaril at ginulpi. Itigil na ang VFA na ‘yan!
Female protesters stage a die-in during a rally near the US Embassy Wednesday in Manila. The protesters demanded the surrender to the Philippine government of the six US Marines who allegedly raped a Filipino woman at the former American naval base. (AP photo)
THE joint oversight committee of the House of Representatives and the Senate will conduct today an inquiry into the rape case involving six American soldiers in Freeport Subic on November 1.
Rep. Antonio Cuenco of Cebu, chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said the resource persons include Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, Justice Secretary Raul M. Gonzalez, the head of the executive committee for the Visiting Forces Agreement Sosimo Paredes and the victim’s lawyer, Katrina Legarda.
Cuenco also said that the committee invited the driver, Timoteo Soriano Jr. whose van was hired by the soldiers, to testify.
The six Marines who had joined a recently concluded training exercise in Subic are in the custody of the US Embassy.
Diplomats said the soldier will be presented in court once charges are formally filed.
The case has led to calls from the political opposition and nationalist groups for the abolition of the Visiting Forces Agreement, which defines the legal framework for American troops taking part in military maneuvers in the Philippines.
The VFA protects US soldiers from prosecution for actions that are part of the war games, but provides less protection for crimes committed while on leave.
Cuenco said that the probe will focus on who will take custody of the US servicemen from the initial hearings up to the trial proper. The inquiry also touches on the one-year deadline for the resolution of the crime involving US servicemen
===
DOJ: Subic rape case transfer to Manila is last resort
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez on Thursday said he is holding off transferring the rape case involving six US marines from Subic to Manila as a last resort.
"The last recourse is to transfer the case to Manila but not now when [proceedings] have not yet started," Gonzalez told DZMM.
Lawyer Katrina Legarda, counsel for the 22-year-old alleged victim, has requested the Department of Justice to hold the preliminary investigation at the DOJ in Manila.
Gonzalez said preliminary investigations must first start to give the fiscal "a chance to prove that he can handle the case assigned to him."
"[Olongapo City Prosecutor's Office] has jurisdiction over the case because the crime [allegedly] happened there," he said.
He said a case is usually transferred to another venue when there are circumstances that prevents the parties to with the prosecution such as when there is threat to the security of any party involved.
Gonzalez also scored criticisms that he coddled the suspects by allowing their transfer of custody to the US Embassy. Legarda earlier accused Gonzalez of allowing the transfer after receiving a call from American officials.
"I have never talked to anyone from the US Embassy from the time the case was reported up to now," Gonzalez said.
"Legarda must have been hallucinating and she's talking about all deals, which she does not know about," he added.
Gonzalez said it is important to gather all pieces of evidence against the suspects for the case to succeed.
The Department of Foreign Affairs formally notified the US Embassy in Manila to require the six accused US Marines to appear in court for the preliminary hearing of charges that they raped a 22-year-old Filipina on November 1 in Subic Freeport.
Named in the subpoena were US Marines Keith Silkwood, Daniel Smith, Albert Lara, Dominic Duplantis, Corey Barris and Chad Carpenter.
On Thursday, the joint oversight committee of the House of Representatives and the Senate will conduct an inquiry into the rape case involving the US marines November 1.
The resource persons include Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, head of the executive committee for the Visiting Forces Agreement Sosimo Paredes and Legarda.
===
DoJ chief dares lawyer to prove he coddled 6 GIs
By Tetch Torres INQ7.net
JUSTICE Secretary Raul Gonzalez dared lawyer Katrina Legarda to prove that he prevented the immediate prosecution of the six US marines accused of rape by ordering their transfer to the US embassy's custody on Nov. 2.
"I dare Katrina Legarda to prove her accusations. If she can prove it, I will resign," Gonzalez told INQ7.
"But if she cannot, she has to resign from the case and surrender her license because she violated our ethical rules for telling such a lie," he added.
Legarda is the lawyer of the 22-year old victim allegedly raped by the six US servicemen.
Gonzalez said he has never spoken to any US embassy official or any US official about the incident.
He pointed that Legarda should have asked Jose Calimlim, Deputy Administrator of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) about the transfer of the six American servicemen to the US embassy.
After knowing about the incident through Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Gonzalez said he called Calimlim and instructed him to hold the suspects so that the Olongapo prosecutors can conduct the inquest proceedings.
"But when the prosecutors got there, Calimlim already turn them over to the US embassy," he said
===
Human Face : Rape a violent crime of conquest
By Ma. Ceres P. Doyo Inquirer News Service
"Man's discovery that his genitalia could serve as a weapon to generate fear must rank as one of the most important discoveries of prehistoric times. From prehistoric times to the present, rape has played a critical function. It is a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear."
-Susan Brownmiller, "Against Our Will"
STEREOTYPICAL RAPE SCENES AS DEPICTED in movies and komiks do happen in real life. Ginahasa sa cogonan (raped amid tall grass) or ginahasa sa sagingan (raped in a banana grove) aren't imaginary scenes used to simply add color to lewd narratives; they actually and quite commonly take place in those proverbial places.
Tricycle drivers waylaying and then raping their young passengers have become stereotypical. Not that tricycle drivers are generally the raping kind. Maybe they just easily make it to the news because they have nowhere to run. They end up beaten up by the victims' kin at police stations and in front of TV cameras, unlike the powerful types who could run away aboard their SUVs.
US servicemen raping "the natives'' should now be stereotypical, too, if we go by the statistics that Sen. Francis Pangilinan cited--3,000 rape cases against Americans have been dismissed in the Olongapo City court. I would presume that the cases were mostly against uniformed men.
Lawyer Katrina Legarda (who sent a congressman to jail for raping a minor) is handling the case of the young woman allegedly raped by five US soldiers last Nov. 1. She has reason to worry and seek the transfer of the case to Manila.
There have been reactions to the media's stress on the fact that the victim was not, repeat, not a sex worker. Women's groups have repeatedly pointed out that prostitute or not, drunk or not, a woman does not deserve to be raped. The Inquirer had clarified that the headline stating the victim was not a sex worker was merely a quoted reaction to an American's argument that the victim had it coming.
Years ago, I went to Bilibid's Death Row to interview prisoners on the rape that they had been convicted of. Of the 11 I interviewed, only two owned up. I could get so lucky. Facing the prospect of death (the death penalty had then been revived) or a long life behind bars didn't seem to change their views.
"But I paid her,'' related Alex (not his real name), 38, a convicted rapist serving his sentence (reclusion perpetua). Alex said it rather casually, with nary a hint of remorse or indignation. He seemed to have accepted his prison sentence with resignation.
Alex, a jeepney driver, raped Nina, a 13-year-old schoolgirl, inside a jeepney parked in a cogon field. "I was plying the Cubao-Antipolo route,'' Alex narrated. "I picked up many passengers along the way and as I was nearing Antipolo, the passengers started to get off one by one. It was late in the afternoon and it was raining.
"When I reached the end of my route I noticed this schoolgirl who hadn't gotten off. She had taken the wrong jeep. She asked me for directions, where she could take a ride back. I said I'd bring her to a waiting station.''
Alex didn't. He brought her to a cogon field. According to him, he parked his jeepney and offered the girl money-P50-if she would have sex with him. She refused repeatedly. "Later, she consented,'' Alex said. He didn't have to force her, he claimed. It took all of 10 minutes.
Alex drove back to town with the girl who was near tears. He remembered dropping her off in front of a restaurant. Unknown to him, the girl sought the help of the restaurant owner who lost no time and brought the girl to the police. A few weeks later Alex was nabbed.
Alex and 11 other men were lined up before the victim for identification, but Nina failed to identify her rapist. The lineup was reduced to six, then to three and then to two. Still Nina could not identify the rapist. "It was when I spoke that she identified me,'' Alex said. "She recognized my voice.''
Alex pleaded not guilty to the charge of rape, arguing that the victim had accepted the money. But he was found guilty just the same. It was proven that Alex had sex with Nina against her consent. She may not have had the telltale signs of struggle to ward off her molester, but Nina's lawyers argued that she had been intimidated and she ran the risk of being harmed had she refused.
And why did Alex do it? "It just suddenly entered my head.'' It wasn't premeditated. He's had nights out with prostitutes, he told me, and so it wasn't as if he was so "starved.'' But, he wanted a virgin, he added. And what did Alex think of women in general? "They are weaker than men,'' he answered. Violence against women has been perennially committed because of that thinking.
Rape is no longer a "private crime.'' The Anti-Rape Law of 1997 classifies rape as "a crime against persons." For so long, rape had been considered merely as "a crime against chastity.'' This seemed to suggest that persons who were unchaste were fair game.
The crime of rape should have nothing to do with the chastity of the victim. Rape is not merely a sexual offense or a crime against chastity but a crime against persons and against the State. As one feminist lawyer said, "Rape is not a crime against the hymen. It is a crime against the whole person.''
It is a crime of the strong against the weak, a crime of conquest. Speaking of conquest, the rape of a 22-year-old Filipina in Subic last Nov. 1 takes on a metaphorical color because the alleged perpetrators are citizens of a former colonizing nation.
We will be watching. We wish Katrina Legarda and her legal team strength of heart, endurance, light.
===
Philstar EDITORIAL - VFA: Dagdag antak sa dati nang sugat
HINDI na bagong balita ang pagkaka-rape sa 22-anyos na Pinay ng anim na sundalong Amerikano sa Subic noong November 1. Noon pa, noong hindi pa isinasara ang Subic Naval Base sa Olongapo at ang Clark Air Base sa Pampanga, marami nang paglabag sa karapatang pantao at pag-alipusta sa mga Pinoy ang mga sundalong Kano. Hindi na bago ang pangre-rape sa mga Pinay sapagkat may naitalang 80 kaso ng panggagahasa noong hindi pa sarado ang dalawang American bases. At sa kabila nang maraming kaso ng panggagahasa, ni isa ay walang nakamit na hustisya ang mga kawawang Pinay. Kasabay sa pagkawala ng mga American bases nawala na rin ang pag-asang makakamit ng hustisya.
At panibagong dagdag na antak sa sugat ang pangre-rape ng anim na Sundalong Kano sa isang Pinay. Nasa custody ng US Embassy ang anim na sundalo at nakatakda ang preliminary hearing sa November 23. Si Atty. Katrina Legarda ang abogado ng ni-rape na Pinay. Ang anim na sundalo ay sina Daniel Smith, Corey Burris, Keith Silkwood, Chad Carpenter, Dominic Duplantis at Albert Lara, Ayon sa report, ang Pinay na ni-rape ay isang college graduate mula sa Zamboanga at kaya nasa Subic ay sinamahan ang kanyang stepsister na makikipagkita sa boyfriend nito. Nakitang nakikipagsayaw ang Pinay sa isa sa mga sundalo sa bar. Pagkalipas ng ilang oras ay lumabas ang sundalo kasama ang Pinay at sumakay sa isang rented van na ang nagmamaneho ay isang Pinoy. Makaraan pa ang ilang oras, nakitang ibinaba ang babae sa isang lugar at doon naman siya nakita ng mga nagpapatrulyang pulis. Naka-panty na lamang ang Pinay, tuliro at naghi-hysterical. Dinala ang babae sa ospital at ang kasunod ay ang rebelasyon ng mga sinapit niya sa anim na sundalong Kano. Humihingi ng hustisya ang Pinay. Nanawagan na ang kanyang ina kay President Arroyo na tulungan ang kanyang anak sa sinapit sa anim na manyakis.
Walumpong kaso ng panggagahasa ang nagawa ng mga Kano at wala pang naigawad na hustisya. Ganito rin kaya ang mangyari sa ginahasang Pinay? Huwag naman sana. Masyado nang nabababoy ang mga Pinay. Humihingi ng hustisya ang ginahasang Pinay at hindi dapat pabayaan. Panahon na rin para i-terminate ang Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) na mula nang ipatupad ang war exercise ay marami nang nilabag ang mga sundalong Kano. Ilang Pinoy na ang kanilang binaril at ginulpi. Itigil na ang VFA na ‘yan!
Female protesters stage a die-in during a rally near the US Embassy Wednesday in Manila. The protesters demanded the surrender to the Philippine government of the six US Marines who allegedly raped a Filipino woman at the former American naval base. (AP photo)
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