DFA denies dragging foot on warrants in rape case
By Jonathan Vicente, Manila Times Reporter
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesman denied on Thursday that it has ever tried to stall the issuance of warrants for the arrest of the four US Marines accused of raping a 22-year-old Filipina in Olongapo late last year.
Ambassador Gilbert Asuque of the DFA Public Information and Services Unit said the DFA has never made representations to Judge Renato Dilag of the Olongapo Regional Trial Court to defer the release of the arrest warrants.
He said that the department is following up on its request to the US Embassy to have the four Marines transferred to the custody of the Philippine government.
Lance Corporals Daniel Smith, Keith Silkwood, Dominic Duplantis and Staff Sgt. Chad Carpentier are in the custody of the US Embassy in Manila.
One of the accused submitted to the justice department on Monday a petition for review of the case.
In the 34-page document Chad Brian Carpentier asked the department to set aside the findings of the Olongapo Prosecutor’s Office and dismiss the charges due to errors allegedly committed.
He alleges that the findings are “results of a distorted and erroneous interpretation of facts and a failure to consider material evidence on record.”
He pointed out that the medicolegal report has no evidence showing that force or intimidation was used on the 22-year-old Filipina. The bruises in the body were not caused by resistance but by her hysterics when she left the van.
“It is submitted, however, that the contusions found on the sides of the labia minora fail to conclusively show that force, sufficient to constitute rape, was used, ” the pleading said.
Carpentier said no evidence on record showed that the complainant-appellee was deprived of reason or unconscious.
--With reports from Jomar Canlas
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesman denied on Thursday that it has ever tried to stall the issuance of warrants for the arrest of the four US Marines accused of raping a 22-year-old Filipina in Olongapo late last year.
Ambassador Gilbert Asuque of the DFA Public Information and Services Unit said the DFA has never made representations to Judge Renato Dilag of the Olongapo Regional Trial Court to defer the release of the arrest warrants.
He said that the department is following up on its request to the US Embassy to have the four Marines transferred to the custody of the Philippine government.
Lance Corporals Daniel Smith, Keith Silkwood, Dominic Duplantis and Staff Sgt. Chad Carpentier are in the custody of the US Embassy in Manila.
One of the accused submitted to the justice department on Monday a petition for review of the case.
In the 34-page document Chad Brian Carpentier asked the department to set aside the findings of the Olongapo Prosecutor’s Office and dismiss the charges due to errors allegedly committed.
He alleges that the findings are “results of a distorted and erroneous interpretation of facts and a failure to consider material evidence on record.”
He pointed out that the medicolegal report has no evidence showing that force or intimidation was used on the 22-year-old Filipina. The bruises in the body were not caused by resistance but by her hysterics when she left the van.
“It is submitted, however, that the contusions found on the sides of the labia minora fail to conclusively show that force, sufficient to constitute rape, was used, ” the pleading said.
Carpentier said no evidence on record showed that the complainant-appellee was deprived of reason or unconscious.
--With reports from Jomar Canlas
posted by OlongapoCity Zambales at
7:40 AM
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