UPDATE ON ALLEGED SUBIC RAPE
Timeline of alleged Subic rape
By Tonette Orejas, Ansbert Joaquin
Inquirer News Service
[Editor's Note: Timeline as narrated by Zambales Representative Milagros Magsaysay based on interviews with the victim, her stepsister, the driver of the Starex van and eight witnesses]
NOV. 1
9 p.m.
The victim, her stepsister and the latter's boyfriend, Christopher James Mills, go to Neptune bar. Victim dances with US soldier surnamed Reynolds. This man is later mistakenly questioned as a suspect. (The driver fails to recognize him as one of the men who rode in the Starex van. Later, the US Marines' logbook shows Reynolds returning to the USS Essex at 9:30 p.m. Investigators find no reason to detain him).
About 10 p.m. Grand Leisure Hotel
Stepsister invites victim to return to Grand Leisure Hotel where they are staying. Hotel is less than a km north of Neptune. The victim prefers to stay longer at the bar and her stepsister leaves her there. Later, Mills volunteers to look for the victim but fails to find her.
10 p.m. Aresi Restaurant
Driver and a US Marine surnamed Carpenter dine at Aresi Restaurant, less than 1 km north of Neptune. Four servicemen call to tell Carpenter and driver to go to Neptune. (Driver says he has been driving for three servicemen for a week. He identifies the two others as Smith and Boris).
10:30 p.m. Neptune with Dewey Avenue street post
The group gathers at Neptune. Soldiers order driver to go inside the bar. He is given a bottle of beer. About 15 to 20 minutes later, driver is told to prepare the van as they are leaving. The five men and the victim ride the van. Driver says he is not sure if victim is lucid at this point. Driver is instructed to go around Dewey Avenue.
As van travels this route, Carpenter shouts: "Go, go, Smith." The three men take turns shouting "F**k! F**k!" The three men stand on their knees, their backs to the driver. Driver says the group did not take turns raping the victim. Driver tries to switch on the light inside the van. Carpenter stops him. Carpenter instead turns up the radio louder. The incident takes 10 to 20 minutes.
The Starex van stops somewhere along Alava Pier and there unloads the girl. Driver says victim's pants lowered to her knees.
11:15 p.m. Subic Telecom-Subic Chamber of Commerce offices
Eight people are at the Alava Pier, between the Subic Telecom and Subic Chamber of Commerce offices, to watch US soldiers return to the ship (this is a practice by locals during the years when the US Navy was still at Subic until 1992). They say a Starex van pulled over and a black man alighted and sat on the pavement. Two Caucasians emerge later carrying the victim, by her hands and feet, as if she were a pig ("parang baboy"). The victim has her shirt and underwear on. Another Caucasian emerges from the van, throws away the remaining beer in a bottle. He rolls the bottle in the direction of the victim. He gets in the van and throws a pair of pants the victim's way.
The eight witnesses get near the victim. They say she looks "groggy." A condom is hanging from her underwear while a trip ticket falls on the pavement. The ticket belongs to Star Ways Tours and Travel owned by one George Day at Clark. Witnesses call an SBMA mobile patrol to report a "possible rape." They fetch victim's stepsister at the hotel.
NOV. 2
2 a.m.
Victim is taken to James Gordon Hospital in Olongapo City, just outside the freeport, for a medico-legal test. The last thing she remembers is she felt dizzy at Neptune.
"Liberty" or recreation time for US troops ends.
6 a.m.
The search for suspects ends after they are presented in a lineup before the van driver.
9 a.m. Alava Pier
USS Essex leaves Alava Pier.
11 a.m. LED office
US Naval Intelligence Service (NIS) begins investigation, gets statements from victim, driver and eight witnesses at the SBMA's law enforcement department (LED).
Victim tells investigators that the last thing she remembers is she felt dizzy at Neptune bar.
NOV. 3
US NIS presents five suspects to SBMA Chair Feliciano Salonga and Administrator Armand Arreza.
2:30 p.m.
A complaint for rape is filed against the suspects before the Olongapo City prosecutor's office.
===
Rape victim's family bent on pursuing case
By Ansbert Joaquin, Tonette Orejas
Inquirer News Service
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT, Zambales -- "We are bent on pursuing the case."
The mother of the Filipino woman allegedly raped by American soldiers on the night of Nov. 1 here issued this statement following a meeting with three lawmakers yesterday, Zambales Representative Milagros Magsaysay told the Inquirer.
"The family is sticking to the story that the victim was raped," said Magsaysay, who was accompanied by Representatives Antonio Cuenco of Cebu City and Teodoro Locsin Jr. of Makati City.
The family's statement came amid a report that Timoteo Soriano, driver of the van the US Marines supposedly rented and used in the alleged rape, was preparing to recant his statement on the incident. The identity of the victim has been withheld.
Reacting to the report, a lawyer at the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) said: "The claim of the driver that he was asked to sign a blank document should be refuted by the fiscal. His affidavit was sworn before the fiscal."
"We have witnesses to support the case," said Carlitos Cruz, a lawyer of the SBMA.
In Manila, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez yesterday told the Inquirer that he had ordered the city prosecutor of Olongapo to conduct a preliminary investigation of the case and that this had been scheduled for today.
Gonzalez said he had also directed the prosecutor to summon the Americans implicated in the case to appear during the investigation to be based on the police complaint filed on Friday.
Because of the long weekend, he said he could not confirm if the summons had been served. However, he added that the investigation could proceed even without the Americans, who had participated in RP-US counterterrorism exercises that ended last week.
Case to be raffled off
SBMA officials said Olongapo prosecutor Prudencio Jalandoni would raffle off the case to a court after the inquest.
Initial reports, mainly accounts by SBMA officials, said that the alleged rape occurred on the night of Nov. 1.
The woman, described as a 22-year-old college graduate and daughter of an Army soldier from Zamboanga City, had gone on a visit to the freeport to accompany a stepsister who was to meet her boyfriend.
As they went bar-hopping, the victim was later driven away in a van, raped and found near the waterfront. When found, she was intoxicated and almost naked, SBMA officials said.
She later executed a complaint, reportedly corroborated by the driver and other witnesses.
The US Embassy yesterday repeated earlier statements it would cooperate with the investigation to ensure that justice would be served.
"They're now under the responsibility of the US Embassy. We are keeping an eye on them, and will make them available to Philippine investigators," embassy spokesperson Matthew Lussenhop told the Inquirer in a phone interview.
Asked what assurances the embassy could give, Lussenhop replied that the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) "provides the framework that justice is done. We are committed to following that framework."
5 or 6 Marines?
He declined to comment on reports that the driver of the Kia Starex van used by the group would "contest" what had been presented as his sworn statement on the incident, explaining that the "investigation is still ongoing."
Asked whether five or six US Marines were involved, Lussenhop said that there had been "confusion" regarding this.
"Initially, there were six Marines who stayed behind either as a material witness or a suspect, then it became five involved. But there were six Marines who stayed behind," he said. "We'll know when the final charges are filed."
Even before a formal investigation, the case has already sparked a political firestorm as senators, congressmen and leftwing groups issued statements denouncing the alleged rape and calling for the rescinding of the controversial Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States, which the Philippine Senate ratified in 1999.
Malacañang yesterday asked critics of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo not to make a political issue out of the case.
"With due respect to the victim and to the criminal justice system, we ask the President's critics not to use this tragic incident as a springboard for political grandstanding," Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said.
"Let justice take its course, unerringly and undeterred by political color."
'Isolated incident'
Bunye said the victim was under the care of the social welfare department and that she was being assisted by the VFA Commission and the Departments of Justice and Defense.
Asked whether the government was considering canceling the VFA, he said the alleged rape case was an "isolated incident." He said this was the first case since the agreement was signed.
"But what we want to stress that is important here is justice. Justice for the victim will be obtained," Bunye said.
Magsaysay denied reports that she was keeping the victim and the mother in her custody. Neither was she trying to influence their decisions, she added.
"I helped out to ensure that proper procedures were followed from the making of the sworn statements, to identifying and holding the suspects and to the filing of the case," she said.
Everything that she did, she said, was in her capacity as a representative of Zambales province.
The victim, she said, "broke down in tears" as she tried to recall what happened to her on the night of Nov. 1.
Cruz, the SBMA lawyer, corrected some details in the Inquirer report on Sunday.
He said the soldiers threatened the driver, not the victim, to open the van. The van, he clarified, stopped at Alava Pier, not at Pier I (which was at the other end of Waterfront Road).
Also, the driver did not claim in his statement that he heard the woman calling for help.
But Cruz said "definitely, we have a prima facie case here."
"How can someone who was seduced into drinking give her consent [to be abused]?" he asked.
No whitewash demanded
Members of the party-list group Gabriela met with SBMA officials on Saturday to get an assurance that the case would not be whitewashed.
Lana Linaban, Gabriela deputy secretary general, said her group had received information that the government was planning to "settle" the case against the American soldiers.
"Aside from settlement of the case, the government might be doing other moves to prevent the rape case from proceeding," Linaban said.
She said SBMA Administrator Armand Arreza told them that the SBMA was extending legal and accommodation assistance to the victim.
"Arreza assured us that the woman is in safe hands. He is closely monitoring the condition of the victim," Linaban said.
Cuenco, chair of the House committee on foreign affairs, expressed concern over the possible conflict of jurisdiction between the Philippines and the United States over the case.
"We will try our best to maintain our good and cordial relations with the United States. We should not take steps that would destroy the good relation but we would also make sure that the interest of the Philippines should prevail," Cuenco said.
Sex terrorists
Administration Senator Joker Arroyo yesterday took issue with the US custody of the six US Marines.
"The Filipino public must look at the case of the American sex terrorists less from what the Philippine government can do because of the plain and simple reality that the sextet is in US custody. Rather, we must stress and expose the US failure to take the moral high ground," Arroyo said in a statement.
"The ball is in the US court, not the Philippines," he said. With reports from Philip C. Tubeza, Nikko Dizon, Christine O. Avendaño, Juliet Labog-Javellana, Christian V. Esguerra, DJ Yap and Luige A. del Puerto in Manila; Allan Macatuno, PDI Central Luzon Desk; and Jhunnex Napallacan, PDI Visayas Bureau
===
IN THE KNOW
A case of rape
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A4 of the Nov. 7, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
A RAPE victim may file an initial complaint or affidavit even without a lawyer, so long as it is sworn to before anyone authorized to administer an oath (a police officer, prosecutor, notary public or judge).
Upon receipt of the affidavits of the victim and witnesses as well as medico-legal findings, the police should immediately endorse the complaint to a prosecutor, who will then conduct a preliminary investigation to determine if there is prima facie evidence that rape has been committed.
In the course of the investigation, the police may only invite the suspects for questioning. On the other hand, the prosecutor has the power to subpoena the respondents to aid in the probe.
If the prosecutor states in his resolution there is probable cause that rape has been committed, he will prepare the information (formal charge) which will then be submitted to the court.
According to lawyer Ging Ursua, only a prosecutor or the rape victim's guardian has the authority to withhold the victim's sworn statement.
Retired police General Jose Calimlim, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority vice president for operations and chief of the SBMA's intelligence and investigation division, has been accused of restricting information regarding the recent rape case.
Ursua says the complaint, instead of being withheld, should be endorsed automatically to the justice department for investigation. Cyril L. Bonabente, PDI Research
===
Palace moves to ease rape backlash
MALACAÑANG moved on Sunday to limit the political backlash over the rape case allegedly involving six US Marines, saying it was an isolated incident and justice would swiftly be done.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the incident would not affect the joint military exercises.
“This is the only case of this nature reported despite the many American troops who have participated in various joint exercises,” Bunye said.
“We cannot say this is a pattern. We believe this is an isolated case and this should not affect our objective of holding joint exercises,” he said.
He said that “justice for the [alleged] victim will be obtained.”
Six US Marines who had joined a recently concluded training exercise in Subic are in the custody of the US Embassy officials after they were accused of raping a 22-year-old Filipina.
Diplomats said they will be presented to the courts once charges are formally filed.
The case has led to calls from the political opposition and nationalist groups for the government to abolish the Visiting Forces Agreement, which spells out the legal framework for American troops taking part in maneuvers in the Philippines.
The VFA protects soldiers from prosecution for actions as part of the war games but provides less protection for crimes committed while on leave.
Opposition Sen. Jamby Madrigal said she would file on Monday a resolution calling for the VFA’s repeal.
Sen. Joker Arroyo said the case exposed the US government’s “failure to take the moral high ground” on actions by its troops on foreign soil..
“No wonder, despite their military victories in Afghanistan and Iraq, they are losing the fight against global terrorism because they have not matched their military victories with moral supremacy,” said Arroyo, who is allied with the administration.
President Arroyo has directed the VFA Commission and the Departments of Foreign Affairs and of Justice to coordinate with the US authorities in investigating the case.
The agreement was signed in 1999 by former foreign affairs secretary Domingo Siazon Jr. and Thomas Hubbard for the US.
The Olongapo City Prosecutor’s Office filed rape charges against US Marines Keith Silkwood, Daniel Smith, Albert Lara, Dominic Duplantis, Corey Barris and Chad Capent. The six Marines are reportedly in the custody of the US Embassy in Manila.
Gen. Jose Calimlim of the Subic Bay Freeport Zone denied he was withholding evidence and documents related to the case.
He said that people and other groups were coming to his office asking for the documents from the investigation conducted by his agency.
Calimlim refused the requests because the case is already in court.
He also dismissed allegations by militant groups that the officers of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority were conspiring against the victim.
He said the woman and her family were in the custody of the SBMA, which dispels speculations that the government is not doing anything to help the victim.
Contrary to speculations, the victim is not a sex worker but a college-degree holder from a well-off family in Zamboanga City.
The woman accompanied her half-sister to Subic to meet her boyfriend, a US serviceman who took part in the counterterrorism training exercise in Subic Bay.
Bunye said the critics of Mrs. Arroyo should not use the incident as a plank for political grandstanding.
“Let justice take its course, unerringly and undeterred by political color. We must follow the path of reason and due process in line with the high interest and dignity our country, the cry for impartial justice for the victim and the rights of the accused,” he said.
Senator Arroyo, in criticizing the US, harked back to the time when the Philippines earned the ire of the US for withdrawing a Philippine humanitarian force in Iraq in exchange for the freedom of the kidnapped Filipino driver, Angelo dela Cruz.
“The US berated the Philippines for not abandoning the coalition of the willing, branding us soft on terrorism, labeling us as cowards. We were snubbed by the United States and created like a pariah in the international community. We paid a high price to protect our own,” Arroyo said.
“Now the shoe is on the other foot. The US condemned us for the Angelo dela Cruz exchange, but it would not budge from coddling of the six offending Marines. The US called us soft on terrorism. How should we call it now, soft when it comes to rape inflicted by the US soldiers on other people,” he added.
The Senate minority leader, Aquilino Pimentel Jr., urged the government to begin the trial immediately.
“The immediate solution is to implement the VFA and get the trial started. That should be the focus of the government now,” Pimentel said in a phone interview.
Madrigal, who heads the Senate Committee on Women and Children, said “a review of the VFA is in order to determine if it is indeed an agreement of equals and that the rights of Filipinos, particularly of women, are protected.”
She said the incident should not be treated as an isolated case, but “as an issue of particular importance to the Philippines.”
She warned Malacañang “not to even think of waiving its jurisdiction out of the case.”
--AFP, Sam Mediavilla and Patricia Esteves
By Tonette Orejas, Ansbert Joaquin
Inquirer News Service
[Editor's Note: Timeline as narrated by Zambales Representative Milagros Magsaysay based on interviews with the victim, her stepsister, the driver of the Starex van and eight witnesses]
NOV. 1
9 p.m.
The victim, her stepsister and the latter's boyfriend, Christopher James Mills, go to Neptune bar. Victim dances with US soldier surnamed Reynolds. This man is later mistakenly questioned as a suspect. (The driver fails to recognize him as one of the men who rode in the Starex van. Later, the US Marines' logbook shows Reynolds returning to the USS Essex at 9:30 p.m. Investigators find no reason to detain him).
About 10 p.m. Grand Leisure Hotel
Stepsister invites victim to return to Grand Leisure Hotel where they are staying. Hotel is less than a km north of Neptune. The victim prefers to stay longer at the bar and her stepsister leaves her there. Later, Mills volunteers to look for the victim but fails to find her.
10 p.m. Aresi Restaurant
Driver and a US Marine surnamed Carpenter dine at Aresi Restaurant, less than 1 km north of Neptune. Four servicemen call to tell Carpenter and driver to go to Neptune. (Driver says he has been driving for three servicemen for a week. He identifies the two others as Smith and Boris).
10:30 p.m. Neptune with Dewey Avenue street post
The group gathers at Neptune. Soldiers order driver to go inside the bar. He is given a bottle of beer. About 15 to 20 minutes later, driver is told to prepare the van as they are leaving. The five men and the victim ride the van. Driver says he is not sure if victim is lucid at this point. Driver is instructed to go around Dewey Avenue.
As van travels this route, Carpenter shouts: "Go, go, Smith." The three men take turns shouting "F**k! F**k!" The three men stand on their knees, their backs to the driver. Driver says the group did not take turns raping the victim. Driver tries to switch on the light inside the van. Carpenter stops him. Carpenter instead turns up the radio louder. The incident takes 10 to 20 minutes.
The Starex van stops somewhere along Alava Pier and there unloads the girl. Driver says victim's pants lowered to her knees.
11:15 p.m. Subic Telecom-Subic Chamber of Commerce offices
Eight people are at the Alava Pier, between the Subic Telecom and Subic Chamber of Commerce offices, to watch US soldiers return to the ship (this is a practice by locals during the years when the US Navy was still at Subic until 1992). They say a Starex van pulled over and a black man alighted and sat on the pavement. Two Caucasians emerge later carrying the victim, by her hands and feet, as if she were a pig ("parang baboy"). The victim has her shirt and underwear on. Another Caucasian emerges from the van, throws away the remaining beer in a bottle. He rolls the bottle in the direction of the victim. He gets in the van and throws a pair of pants the victim's way.
The eight witnesses get near the victim. They say she looks "groggy." A condom is hanging from her underwear while a trip ticket falls on the pavement. The ticket belongs to Star Ways Tours and Travel owned by one George Day at Clark. Witnesses call an SBMA mobile patrol to report a "possible rape." They fetch victim's stepsister at the hotel.
NOV. 2
2 a.m.
Victim is taken to James Gordon Hospital in Olongapo City, just outside the freeport, for a medico-legal test. The last thing she remembers is she felt dizzy at Neptune.
"Liberty" or recreation time for US troops ends.
6 a.m.
The search for suspects ends after they are presented in a lineup before the van driver.
9 a.m. Alava Pier
USS Essex leaves Alava Pier.
11 a.m. LED office
US Naval Intelligence Service (NIS) begins investigation, gets statements from victim, driver and eight witnesses at the SBMA's law enforcement department (LED).
Victim tells investigators that the last thing she remembers is she felt dizzy at Neptune bar.
NOV. 3
US NIS presents five suspects to SBMA Chair Feliciano Salonga and Administrator Armand Arreza.
2:30 p.m.
A complaint for rape is filed against the suspects before the Olongapo City prosecutor's office.
===
Rape victim's family bent on pursuing case
By Ansbert Joaquin, Tonette Orejas
Inquirer News Service
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT, Zambales -- "We are bent on pursuing the case."
The mother of the Filipino woman allegedly raped by American soldiers on the night of Nov. 1 here issued this statement following a meeting with three lawmakers yesterday, Zambales Representative Milagros Magsaysay told the Inquirer.
"The family is sticking to the story that the victim was raped," said Magsaysay, who was accompanied by Representatives Antonio Cuenco of Cebu City and Teodoro Locsin Jr. of Makati City.
The family's statement came amid a report that Timoteo Soriano, driver of the van the US Marines supposedly rented and used in the alleged rape, was preparing to recant his statement on the incident. The identity of the victim has been withheld.
Reacting to the report, a lawyer at the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) said: "The claim of the driver that he was asked to sign a blank document should be refuted by the fiscal. His affidavit was sworn before the fiscal."
"We have witnesses to support the case," said Carlitos Cruz, a lawyer of the SBMA.
In Manila, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez yesterday told the Inquirer that he had ordered the city prosecutor of Olongapo to conduct a preliminary investigation of the case and that this had been scheduled for today.
Gonzalez said he had also directed the prosecutor to summon the Americans implicated in the case to appear during the investigation to be based on the police complaint filed on Friday.
Because of the long weekend, he said he could not confirm if the summons had been served. However, he added that the investigation could proceed even without the Americans, who had participated in RP-US counterterrorism exercises that ended last week.
Case to be raffled off
SBMA officials said Olongapo prosecutor Prudencio Jalandoni would raffle off the case to a court after the inquest.
Initial reports, mainly accounts by SBMA officials, said that the alleged rape occurred on the night of Nov. 1.
The woman, described as a 22-year-old college graduate and daughter of an Army soldier from Zamboanga City, had gone on a visit to the freeport to accompany a stepsister who was to meet her boyfriend.
As they went bar-hopping, the victim was later driven away in a van, raped and found near the waterfront. When found, she was intoxicated and almost naked, SBMA officials said.
She later executed a complaint, reportedly corroborated by the driver and other witnesses.
The US Embassy yesterday repeated earlier statements it would cooperate with the investigation to ensure that justice would be served.
"They're now under the responsibility of the US Embassy. We are keeping an eye on them, and will make them available to Philippine investigators," embassy spokesperson Matthew Lussenhop told the Inquirer in a phone interview.
Asked what assurances the embassy could give, Lussenhop replied that the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) "provides the framework that justice is done. We are committed to following that framework."
5 or 6 Marines?
He declined to comment on reports that the driver of the Kia Starex van used by the group would "contest" what had been presented as his sworn statement on the incident, explaining that the "investigation is still ongoing."
Asked whether five or six US Marines were involved, Lussenhop said that there had been "confusion" regarding this.
"Initially, there were six Marines who stayed behind either as a material witness or a suspect, then it became five involved. But there were six Marines who stayed behind," he said. "We'll know when the final charges are filed."
Even before a formal investigation, the case has already sparked a political firestorm as senators, congressmen and leftwing groups issued statements denouncing the alleged rape and calling for the rescinding of the controversial Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States, which the Philippine Senate ratified in 1999.
Malacañang yesterday asked critics of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo not to make a political issue out of the case.
"With due respect to the victim and to the criminal justice system, we ask the President's critics not to use this tragic incident as a springboard for political grandstanding," Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said.
"Let justice take its course, unerringly and undeterred by political color."
'Isolated incident'
Bunye said the victim was under the care of the social welfare department and that she was being assisted by the VFA Commission and the Departments of Justice and Defense.
Asked whether the government was considering canceling the VFA, he said the alleged rape case was an "isolated incident." He said this was the first case since the agreement was signed.
"But what we want to stress that is important here is justice. Justice for the victim will be obtained," Bunye said.
Magsaysay denied reports that she was keeping the victim and the mother in her custody. Neither was she trying to influence their decisions, she added.
"I helped out to ensure that proper procedures were followed from the making of the sworn statements, to identifying and holding the suspects and to the filing of the case," she said.
Everything that she did, she said, was in her capacity as a representative of Zambales province.
The victim, she said, "broke down in tears" as she tried to recall what happened to her on the night of Nov. 1.
Cruz, the SBMA lawyer, corrected some details in the Inquirer report on Sunday.
He said the soldiers threatened the driver, not the victim, to open the van. The van, he clarified, stopped at Alava Pier, not at Pier I (which was at the other end of Waterfront Road).
Also, the driver did not claim in his statement that he heard the woman calling for help.
But Cruz said "definitely, we have a prima facie case here."
"How can someone who was seduced into drinking give her consent [to be abused]?" he asked.
No whitewash demanded
Members of the party-list group Gabriela met with SBMA officials on Saturday to get an assurance that the case would not be whitewashed.
Lana Linaban, Gabriela deputy secretary general, said her group had received information that the government was planning to "settle" the case against the American soldiers.
"Aside from settlement of the case, the government might be doing other moves to prevent the rape case from proceeding," Linaban said.
She said SBMA Administrator Armand Arreza told them that the SBMA was extending legal and accommodation assistance to the victim.
"Arreza assured us that the woman is in safe hands. He is closely monitoring the condition of the victim," Linaban said.
Cuenco, chair of the House committee on foreign affairs, expressed concern over the possible conflict of jurisdiction between the Philippines and the United States over the case.
"We will try our best to maintain our good and cordial relations with the United States. We should not take steps that would destroy the good relation but we would also make sure that the interest of the Philippines should prevail," Cuenco said.
Sex terrorists
Administration Senator Joker Arroyo yesterday took issue with the US custody of the six US Marines.
"The Filipino public must look at the case of the American sex terrorists less from what the Philippine government can do because of the plain and simple reality that the sextet is in US custody. Rather, we must stress and expose the US failure to take the moral high ground," Arroyo said in a statement.
"The ball is in the US court, not the Philippines," he said. With reports from Philip C. Tubeza, Nikko Dizon, Christine O. Avendaño, Juliet Labog-Javellana, Christian V. Esguerra, DJ Yap and Luige A. del Puerto in Manila; Allan Macatuno, PDI Central Luzon Desk; and Jhunnex Napallacan, PDI Visayas Bureau
===
IN THE KNOW
A case of rape
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A4 of the Nov. 7, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
A RAPE victim may file an initial complaint or affidavit even without a lawyer, so long as it is sworn to before anyone authorized to administer an oath (a police officer, prosecutor, notary public or judge).
Upon receipt of the affidavits of the victim and witnesses as well as medico-legal findings, the police should immediately endorse the complaint to a prosecutor, who will then conduct a preliminary investigation to determine if there is prima facie evidence that rape has been committed.
In the course of the investigation, the police may only invite the suspects for questioning. On the other hand, the prosecutor has the power to subpoena the respondents to aid in the probe.
If the prosecutor states in his resolution there is probable cause that rape has been committed, he will prepare the information (formal charge) which will then be submitted to the court.
According to lawyer Ging Ursua, only a prosecutor or the rape victim's guardian has the authority to withhold the victim's sworn statement.
Retired police General Jose Calimlim, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority vice president for operations and chief of the SBMA's intelligence and investigation division, has been accused of restricting information regarding the recent rape case.
Ursua says the complaint, instead of being withheld, should be endorsed automatically to the justice department for investigation. Cyril L. Bonabente, PDI Research
===
Palace moves to ease rape backlash
MALACAÑANG moved on Sunday to limit the political backlash over the rape case allegedly involving six US Marines, saying it was an isolated incident and justice would swiftly be done.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the incident would not affect the joint military exercises.
“This is the only case of this nature reported despite the many American troops who have participated in various joint exercises,” Bunye said.
“We cannot say this is a pattern. We believe this is an isolated case and this should not affect our objective of holding joint exercises,” he said.
He said that “justice for the [alleged] victim will be obtained.”
Six US Marines who had joined a recently concluded training exercise in Subic are in the custody of the US Embassy officials after they were accused of raping a 22-year-old Filipina.
Diplomats said they will be presented to the courts once charges are formally filed.
The case has led to calls from the political opposition and nationalist groups for the government to abolish the Visiting Forces Agreement, which spells out the legal framework for American troops taking part in maneuvers in the Philippines.
The VFA protects soldiers from prosecution for actions as part of the war games but provides less protection for crimes committed while on leave.
Opposition Sen. Jamby Madrigal said she would file on Monday a resolution calling for the VFA’s repeal.
Sen. Joker Arroyo said the case exposed the US government’s “failure to take the moral high ground” on actions by its troops on foreign soil..
“No wonder, despite their military victories in Afghanistan and Iraq, they are losing the fight against global terrorism because they have not matched their military victories with moral supremacy,” said Arroyo, who is allied with the administration.
President Arroyo has directed the VFA Commission and the Departments of Foreign Affairs and of Justice to coordinate with the US authorities in investigating the case.
The agreement was signed in 1999 by former foreign affairs secretary Domingo Siazon Jr. and Thomas Hubbard for the US.
The Olongapo City Prosecutor’s Office filed rape charges against US Marines Keith Silkwood, Daniel Smith, Albert Lara, Dominic Duplantis, Corey Barris and Chad Capent. The six Marines are reportedly in the custody of the US Embassy in Manila.
Gen. Jose Calimlim of the Subic Bay Freeport Zone denied he was withholding evidence and documents related to the case.
He said that people and other groups were coming to his office asking for the documents from the investigation conducted by his agency.
Calimlim refused the requests because the case is already in court.
He also dismissed allegations by militant groups that the officers of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority were conspiring against the victim.
He said the woman and her family were in the custody of the SBMA, which dispels speculations that the government is not doing anything to help the victim.
Contrary to speculations, the victim is not a sex worker but a college-degree holder from a well-off family in Zamboanga City.
The woman accompanied her half-sister to Subic to meet her boyfriend, a US serviceman who took part in the counterterrorism training exercise in Subic Bay.
Bunye said the critics of Mrs. Arroyo should not use the incident as a plank for political grandstanding.
“Let justice take its course, unerringly and undeterred by political color. We must follow the path of reason and due process in line with the high interest and dignity our country, the cry for impartial justice for the victim and the rights of the accused,” he said.
Senator Arroyo, in criticizing the US, harked back to the time when the Philippines earned the ire of the US for withdrawing a Philippine humanitarian force in Iraq in exchange for the freedom of the kidnapped Filipino driver, Angelo dela Cruz.
“The US berated the Philippines for not abandoning the coalition of the willing, branding us soft on terrorism, labeling us as cowards. We were snubbed by the United States and created like a pariah in the international community. We paid a high price to protect our own,” Arroyo said.
“Now the shoe is on the other foot. The US condemned us for the Angelo dela Cruz exchange, but it would not budge from coddling of the six offending Marines. The US called us soft on terrorism. How should we call it now, soft when it comes to rape inflicted by the US soldiers on other people,” he added.
The Senate minority leader, Aquilino Pimentel Jr., urged the government to begin the trial immediately.
“The immediate solution is to implement the VFA and get the trial started. That should be the focus of the government now,” Pimentel said in a phone interview.
Madrigal, who heads the Senate Committee on Women and Children, said “a review of the VFA is in order to determine if it is indeed an agreement of equals and that the rights of Filipinos, particularly of women, are protected.”
She said the incident should not be treated as an isolated case, but “as an issue of particular importance to the Philippines.”
She warned Malacañang “not to even think of waiving its jurisdiction out of the case.”
--AFP, Sam Mediavilla and Patricia Esteves
posted by OlongapoCity Zambales at
5:11 PM
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