WE MUST HOLD CONTINUOUS HEARINGS AND BRING JUSTICE TO 22-YEAR OLD FILIPINA
“We must immediately prosecute and try the accused US military personnel by holding continuous hearings in order to bring justice to the victim,” said Gordon.
He emphasized that the speedy administration of justice in this case will especially benefit the victim, adding that it is also in the interest of both the Philippines and the US to see the said case take its immediate due course.
According to Gordon, who is a member of the Legislative Oversight Committee of the Visiting Forces Agreement, the Executive Branch of the Government must explain to the people what the terms and processes are under the VFA and what they intend to do.
“They must keep our people informed and our people must be assured that the government is serious in enforcing our laws and pushing for the administration of justice by holding continuous hearings,” Gordon pronounced.
He added that “the burden lies with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to act responsibly in prosecuting this case as well as asserting our jurisdiction over this offense and the US military personnel involved in this in relation to the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).”
Gordon noted that there have been groups and individuals proposing to scrap the VFA “may be largely due to the fact that our people are in the dark as to how the Government, particularly the DOJ and the DFA, will handle this situation and what will happen eventually. They are under the impression that the accused US military personnel may be given special treatment or may even be exempted from the charge, which should not be so.”
“There are rules in the VFA and protocols on how to handle situations like this. The accused US military personnel are required to face and answer the offense charged against them in the appropriate investigative and judicial proceedings,” said Gordon.
“But in spite of this VFA-related incident which is indeed a letdown, we must not lose our focus on the real purpose of the VFA which we entered into in accordance with the Constitution. Notwithstanding all the noise calling for the cancellation of the VFA, the fact remains that the VFA is a valid treaty entered into in 1998 by the Philippines presumably, in pursuant to our national interest. The real purpose of the VFA is to train and develop our armed forces, improve our military capability, and promote peace and security in our territory and the Pacific region,” Gordon explained.
“The act of 5 accused US military personnel must not be taken against the entire VFA system. Anything that goes beyond the real purpose of the VFA, including the alleged rape and the disrespect of our women by some Americans in our territory, must be severely dealt with by our laws,” said Gordon adding that, “we must not also lose our focus on the rape charge and we must investigate and prosecute immediately and hold continuous hearings in the interest of justice. Only when the accused US military personnel are properly tried and convicted, if found guilty, can prove that on top of mutual defense cooperation between the US and the Philippines, the VFA system is indeed working according to our national interest.”
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Rape case vs GIs 'strong,' says lawyer
By Tonette Orejas, Volt Contreras, Inquirer News Service
THE FILIPINO woman allegedly raped by US Marines on the night of Nov. 1 at the Subic Bay Freeport has a "strong case" against her attackers, according to a lawyer who led the legal team that first assisted her.
For one thing, lawyer Carlitos Cruz said yesterday, the elements of premeditation were present. "She was seduced into drinking seven glasses of vodka tonic. These could be spiked with drugs-the reason why she came out dizzy," he said.
Cruz is the senior consultant of Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Chair Feliciano Salonga, who asked him to help get the woman's sworn statement.
The woman, a 22-year-old college graduate from Zamboanga, met the soldiers while she and her sister, both visiting as tourists, went bar-hopping at the Subic port that night.
They ended up at the Neptune bar, Cruz said, recalling the main contents of the woman's statement filed on Thursday at the Olongapo City prosecutor's office.
Six servicemen have been named in the case, but the US Embassy has since said only five were tagged in the alleged rape and barred from leaving the country.
The servicemen are in the embassy's custody but will be presented to the courts once formal charges are filed, embassy officials have said.
By force
Information gathered by the Inquirer showed that the rape victim graduated from the Ateneo de Davao University in Davao City two or three years ago with a management degree. Her family reportedly runs an eatery inside the Southern Command (Southcom) in Zamboanga City that also caters to US personnel.
Apparently, the soldiers invited the woman away from her sister, Cruz said.
Timoteo Soriano, the driver of the group's rented Starex van, had stated that one of the soldiers pulled at the woman and forced her to ride with them.
"That soldier threatened to break the van's windshield if she didn't [get in]," Cruz said.
This was Soriano's account, according to Cruz:
The van moved slowly along Dewey Avenue inside the freeport. At one point, the group told the driver to park, ordered him to get out and locked him out.
"Magulo, maingay,"(Agitated, noisy) was how the driver described the clangor he heard from outside the van.
"F--k! F--k!" the driver heard the soldiers yelling to the woman, who by that time was shouting for help.
"They did not want to open the van," the driver said.
A few minutes later, the soldiers ordered Soriano to drive westward in the direction of Pier I, in front of where the USS Essex was docked.
Like a pig
At that point, two witnesses-the younger brother of a mayor in Zambales and that man's wife-saw two Americans carrying the woman out of the van like a pig ("parang baboy"), Cruz said.
The woman was reportedly clad only in her underwear. The witnesses saw the soldiers throw her pants at her, Cruz said.
A condom and the trip ticket of the rented van were found in the pants.
"Iyak nang iyak (She kept on crying). She was in a state of shock when found," Cruz said.
"Granted that only one did it to her, the act of one is the act of all," the lawyer said. "The concerted action of the five men pointed to the conspiracy of all to commit rape."
Cruz said that even if the soldiers paid damages for their civil liability, they still would have to face criminal liability.
"Rape is a public crime" with a penalty of imprisonment for 30 years," Cruz said, adding:
"What the Philippine government should do is provide her safe refuge and a good legal team to help her win the case."
Cheering him on
The Associated Press quoted Zambales Rep. Milagros Magsaysay, whose district includes part of Subic, as saying that she spoke with the woman on Wednesday.
Magsaysay said the woman claimed she was raped inside a van as it was being driven through Subic, but that she couldn't remember details because she passed out.
The lawmaker quoted the driver of the van as saying that one of the Marines raped the woman while the others cheered him on.
Efforts by the Inquirer to get a copy of the woman's sworn statement were blocked, apparently by retired Gen. Jose Calimlim, SBMA vice president for operations and chief of the agency's intelligence and investigation division.
Officials reached by the Inquirer gave a standard reply to the request: Get the copy from the Olongapo prosecutor's office.
An SBMA source said Calimlim "took it upon himself, without authority from Chairman Salonga," to restrict the information.
'No resistance'
"But this is a purely legal matter now. The security work is over because the woman's custody has already been transferred," the source said, angry at Calimlim's alleged unwarranted strictness in the case.
But in Manila, a ranking Filipino official assigned to monitor the case quoted Soriano as saying that he and his lawyer were planning to hold a press conference shortly to "contest" what had been presented as his sworn statement on the incident.
The official, who said he interviewed Soriano last Friday, said the latter answered "no" when asked if he had "felt or heard any sign of struggle or refusal" on the part of the woman.
Soriano said he could not see all the passengers behind him all the time because he kept his eyes on the road during the alleged rape, the official said.
And though he could hear "shouts" from the Americans, he could only make out the recurring word "F--k!"
"So I asked him if he felt or heard any sign of struggle. Sa palagay mo ba, pumalag (Do you think there was resistance)? He answered no," the official told the Inquirer on the phone.
"He is pretty sure there was no gang rape," the official said.
He said Soriano had maintained that his six passengers "did not change places" the whole time he was driving the van nonstop for 10 to 15 minutes.
The official asked not to be named because, he said, he was "not at liberty to go into the merits" of the case.
Seating arrangement
"According to him (Soriano), he never mentioned 'gang rape' or even the word 'rape' in the sworn statement he was made to sign," the official said.
Soriano also supposedly managed to remember the seating arrangement in the van: Beside him on the front seat was an American named Carpentier or Carpenter; three Americans occupied the middle seats, including one named Borris; the Filipino woman and another American sat in the rear.
The official who did not want to be named said he called Soriano to a meeting in a government office in Manila on Friday. The driver disclosed then that he had hired a lawyer, but the latter was not present at the meeting.
Later in the interview with the Inquirer, the official, a lawyer, hinted at being fearful that fellow Filipinos would accuse him of "bias" because "this latest narration is favorable to the Americans."
"If he (Soriano) will stand by what he just said until the hearings, I see the weakening of the case to a lesser crime. Or it might even be dismissed. At best it may be simple rape, if there was no consent," the official said.
The official said Soriano's "demeanor" during the meeting was that of someone who was "sincere and just after the truth."
Jurisdiction
Philippine courts have jurisdiction over rape cases filed against American servicemen.
According to a primer on the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement, only cases concerning crimes committed in line with official duties may be turned over to US courts.
Official duty is defined as "acts which are required or authorized to be done as a function of that duty which the individual is performing, and not all acts by an individual during the period while he is on duty."
American soldiers accused of rape are not immune to prosecution in the Philippines because rape will "never be considered an act done in the performance of that duty," the primer said. With a report from Jamie Alarcon, PDI Research
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