A 22-year-old student has come out to expose her alleged rape by a US Marine inside a Makati City hotel. But the victim said she won’t press charges, citing the case of “Nicole.”
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat
MANILA — Another Filipina rape victim has surfaced, pointing to yet another American soldier as the perpetrator.
In a press conference Thursday morning, Vanessa (not her real name) recounted how a US Marine allegedly raped her inside a room at a five-star hotel in Makati City on April 19.
The alleged crime took place four days before the Philippine Court of Appeals overturned the rape conviction of Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, another US Marine convicted in 2006 of raping a Filipino woman in Subic, the former US military facility north of Manila.
Lawyer Evalyn Ursua, Vanessa’s counsel, said they decided not to reveal the name of the suspect to protect the victim. The women’s group Gabriela, which helps Vanessa, used the alias “John Jones” in referring to the alleged rapist.
Gabriela secretary-general Emmi de Jesus said they were able to confirm from hotel records that the US serviceman was from the Joint US Military Assistance Group (Jusmag) assigned to the Balikatan, the ongoing US-Philippine military exercises.
In her account, Vanessa, a 22-year-old college student in a private university, said the US Marine had “fooled” her into going with him to his hotel room, telling her that several of his friends were at the hotel.
In a statement she read during the press conference at the Gabriela office in Quezon City, her back to the camera, Vanessa said Jones approached her group at a club at The Fort in Taguig City on April 10. Jones introduced himself as a US Marine, then asked for her cellphone number. From that day on, they had been exchanging text messages.
On the night of April 18, Vanessa went out with her cousin and a male friend. At around 3:30 a.m., Jones, along with three women, met with Vanessa at the bar. By now , Vanessa’s companion had left to meet a friend. Jones then asked Vanessa to go to a five-star hotel in Makati City, saying that his girlfriend and some of his and her friends – including those that Vanessa had met on April 15 — were already at his hotel room. Vanessa went with Jones, thinking that she was going to meet familiar people.
Vanessa was surprised to see that nobody else was in the hotel room. Jones told her that his friends would arrive in five minutes. When not one of the friends Jones mentioned arrived, Vanessa told Jones she wanted to go home.
It was then that Jones threw her onto the bed and slapped her, Vanessa said. “Why you do that? (sic)” Vanessa quoted Jones as telling her. He then repeatedly slapped her and grabbed her arms.
“I struggled and shouted ‘No! No! Don’t do that! You’re hurting me! I want to go home!’” Vanessa said in Tagalog. “Jones was now on top of me and kissing me on the lips and breast, all the while pinning down my arms,” she narrated.
Now crying, Vanessa continued: “I can’t recall exactly how it happened but Jones managed to undress me. My throat had become hoarse and painful from shouting. My cheeks were already numb and I was crying and crying.”
Then, Vanessa said, now breaking down, Jones forced himself into her.
No rape case yet
Ursua, Vanessa’s lawyer, said they have the name and the photograph of the US Marine, the medico-legal report, documents and other physical evidence to prove that the victim was indeed raped. “She reported the case immediately, within 24 hours,” Ursua said.
But Vanessa, Ursua added, is not planning to file any case yet against the perpetrator.
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By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO, MARYA SALAMAT and ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
After playing tough against the Luisita SDO during the first oral argument, the SC justices seemed to have “retreated” during the second hearing, forming a mediation panel for a “happy compromise.” The peasants’ desire for actual distribution of land, which the peasants say is no longer negotiable, should have been clear by now.
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May 15th, 2009 at 10:04 am
[...] A 22-year-old Filipina student has come out to expose her alleged rape by a US Marine inside a Makati City hotel on April 19. But the victim said she won’t press charges, citing the case of “Nicole.” READ THE STORY [...]
May 15th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Dapat turuan ng “libido management” ang mga sundalong Amerikano. This is outrageous! A “Dirty Harry” who is insensitive to our culture. Its time to review the illegitimate visiting forces agreement and assert our rights and our sovereignty.
May 17th, 2009 at 4:10 am
Give me a break! It’s 3:30am going to a hotel with a stranger. What is she thinking. If she goes to a hotel with a
filipino whom she just met who has money to spend going places such as nice night club and restaurant then something such as this happened, do you think she’ll report it? I don’t think so. This is another one of those let’s settle this out of court.
May 17th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
celso, you comepletely are out of your mind! please read the story again.
May 17th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
even if she went out with anyone for money, which is by the way not the case here, it doesn’t mean she cannot cry no! if she gets raped.
the macho in us and the double standard that this society has all taught us to embrace definitely will tell us: if she’s in her right mind, she wouldn’t go out at that hour.
how cruel.
she was raped.that is the point.
and by the way, what does the government say? nothing relevant of course. the government will again and yet again play deaf: this is the USA they are attacking, no way should we do anything right about it.
our country is being raped over and over since time immemorial. like that is not bad enough, does it really have to be literal too? how many more Filipinas?
May 19th, 2009 at 6:30 am
The January 1838 edition of the United States Democratic Review, in an article regarding the Supreme Court. “This collegiate tempest in a teapot might serve for the lads of the University to moot; but, surely, was unworthy the solemn adjudication attempted for it.”
In this case, some rad-fems are lined up with commie rebel types, thinking that anti-usa rape baiting propaganda may help ignite zenophibic nationalistic hatreds and rally some support.
What do they expect to achieve? More support for anti-usa, anti-government, pro-communist, pro-islamic, pro-radical feminist groups? What exactly have any of those groups done for Filippinos, (other than spew hatespeech) compared to the government and USA supported programs?
It is almost funny that Gabriela keeps of finding these alleged rape victem that are whores. Both of the Gabriela girls spent the evening guzzling booze in GoGo bars (brothels?) before they decided to pick up saliors in the wee hours of the morning. Sounds like they were most likely freelancers or outright whores, as are most women in those type bars. No offense to whores intended, I am very sure that there are very fine whores out there, so much so it is absurd for a US sailor to rape anyone. These kids make 10 times filipino wages, and no place to spend it on the ships, no bills to pay, and spend lots of thier money on booze and women whenever they get a rare shore leave. Besides the other sailors would kick thier ass if they did anything stupid that would jeopardize shore leave for the rest. Sailors are the biggest whores of all, and everyone should know that, even filipina girls in bars at 3.30 am, it would be silly to expect otherwise. It is much more logical and reasonable to conclude the incidents were either freelancers extorting additional money or amatuer whores that cry rape afterwards to cover up thier obvious whoredom. In the subic case, the half naked puke drunk whore needed a cover story for the police that found her, in the Makati case, the hysterical whore needed a cover story afer the customer called hotel security to remove her from the room.