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National News Flashes - Philippines
This is to update you on the exciting developments of the landmark Subic Rape case reported here in December 2006. Barely a week after a news article came out in the Inquirer.net regarding TFSR' s intent to go to the UN if rapist Smith is acquitted, another justice resigned out of a sense of what we in the TFSR think is delicadeza. Or perhaps they had become suddenly conscience-stricken. Or wanting to avoid another controversy if they decide to indeed acquit Smith & TFSR decides to bring the case to the UN. Whatever reason the honorable justices have for resigning and/or inhibiting from the case, one thing is certain: the justices are having difficulty reversing the CONVICTION (of Smith) decision of the brave Judge Pozon of the Makati Regional trial Court.
In the meanwhile, the TFSR will endeavor to make its presence felt to keep the case alive even as we are constrained greatly by lack of material resources.
(On Dec. 04, 2006, US Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith was found “guilty beyond reasonable doubt” by a regional trial court, of having raped 22 year-old “Nicole” on Nov. 1, 2005 , inside a moving van in the Subic Bay Freeport and sentenced him to 40 years life imprisonment. It was an uphill battle from the start. This was not a mere case of an unknown woman filing rape charges against power wielding adversaries. This was a sovereignty issue as well. The four accused US servicemen were being protected by the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) which gives US personnel undue advantage: custody remains with the US and a one year period to finish the case is a requirement. Rape cases involving US servicemen during the presence of US military bases in the Philippines have reportedly reached a staggering 3,000 count . Not one of these cases ever reached court. The Subic Rape Case is a landmark case as it is the first case against US servicemen that prospered in court, because of its importance in challenging the implementation of the Anti-Rape Law in furtherance of Women’s rights and because it put to test the exercise of sovereignty in a crime that involved the VFA)
Another article about the status
of the subic rape case by ISIS Int'l (http://www.isiswomen.org )
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