She said the bottle
was almost empty when handed to her by an American wearing a sando
(an undershirt). The man, who was on board a van, opened the window and
asked her: “You want this?”
Without hesitation,
she took the bottle, said “Thank you” and walked away. Little did she know
a crime was being committed at that very moment.
Her testimony
Olivia said she went
inside the premises of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) in the
afternoon of Nov. 1 to gather softdrink and beer cans for her child’s
science project.
“Inisip ko na
maraming in-cans duon dahil nabalitaan nga namin na may dumating na barko,”
(I knew there would be many cans there because we heard that a ship had
just docked) she said. The USS Essex carrying U.S. servicemen came to port
on Philippine shores for military exercises on Oct. 22 and left Nov. 2, a
day after the alleged rape occurred.
Olivia said she was
at the vicinity of Neptune when she noticed a dark-colored van playing
loud music. She then saw a woman being escorted by some Caucasians to the
van.
She could not however
say what time it was because she did not have a watch.
“Yung babae, kung
maglakad malagihay na,” (The woman was already walking unsteadily) she
said.
The van left as soon
as the woman and the American servicemen went in, she said.
As Olivia went around
the base to gather more cans, she noticed the same van going around the
vicinity. It was still playing music too loudly, she said.
When Olivia was by
the church near the Legenda Hotel (around 1 km from Neptune),
she noticed the same van, this time parked on the street.
While rummaging
through a garbage container beside the van, its window suddenly opened and
a Caucasian male offered her the bottle. It was then that she was given
the tall, frosted bottle of Artic Strawberry Vodka.
After around 20
minutes, Olivia left and van was still there.
Olivia’s search for
cans lasted till late in the evening and took her to the trash cans along
the boardwalk. To her surprise, the same van stopped right beside the
light post beside which she was standing.
Olivia said she saw a
naked woman being dumped from the van. She also saw someone from inside
the van threw clothes and what she described as “something sticky.”
That sticky thing,
which hit Olivia’s left leg before landing on top of her toe was a used
condom, said Olivia. “Naku, kabastos!” (How gross) she said and
threw the used condom into the wastebasket. She said she remembers the
condom was color orange.
Olivia then heard
voices inside the van saying, “Just leave her there. Let’s go! Let’s go!
Let’s go! Hurry!”
It was then that the
van left hurriedly, she said.
“Nagulat ako.
Akala ko patay na yung babae kasi malatang-malata sya,” (I was
surprised. I thought the woman was dead because she was limp) she said.
Out of shock, she
said she could only stare at the woman at first who pleaded, “Tulungan
nyo ako.” (Help me.)
Olivia then noticed
that the woman was only wearing panties. “Yung harapan ng panty ay nasa
pwet tapos nakalilis pa (The front side of the panty was at the back
and was halfway down),” she said while demonstrating how the victim’s
panty was rolled down to show her buttocks.
“Tapos, may nakita
akong palapit na pulis kaya tumakbo na ako,” (Then I saw a policeman
approaching so I ran away)” she said. That was the last time she saw the
victim.
Sleepless
“Hindi ako
nakatulog nang gabing yun (I was not able to sleep that night),”
she said. “Naawa ako sa babae.” (I felt sorry for the girl.)
It was only in the
afternoon the next day when she heard in the news about the alleged rape
involving six U.S. servicemen. It was only then, she said, that she
realized she has witnessed a crime.
“Hindi ko akalain
na aabot ito sa ganito (I did not realize that it will come to this),”
she said. “Naikwento ko naman sa mga kaibigan ko yung nalalaman ko pero
ayoko na sanang masangkot dito sa gulo kaya hindi na ako nagsabi sa pulis,
(I have told my friends about what I know but I do not want to get
involved in this mess so I did not tell the police)” she added.
Driver
But Olivia could not
hide her anger at the van driver. “Hayop yung driver na yun. Sa kanya
ang manibela pero wala syang ginawa,” (The driver is an animal. He has
control of the steering wheel but he did not do anything) she said.
“Wag nya sabihin
na wala syang nakita kasi kung may salamin siya sa harap, makikita niya
lahat ng nangyari. Busog na ang bulsa nya, busog pa ang mata nya sa
kakatingin,” (He cannot claim he saw nothing, his van has a rear view
mirror. His pockets would be full and he would also have watched) she
said.
She said the driver
could just have stopped in front of a group of policemen and told them
something was going on inside the van. “Napakaraming pulis nung gabi na
yun. May naka-bike, naka-motor, naka-patrol, naglalakad at nakatambay,”
(There were so many policemen that night. There were some on bicycles,
on motorcycles, some were walking and some were simply standing by) she
said.
Credible witness
In a separate
interview, human rights lawyer Neri Colmenares, spokesperson of the
Counsels for the Defense of Liberties (CODAL), said Olivia should consider
testifying before the courts.
She is a credible
witness on two grounds, said the lawyer. First, she has no interest in the
case because she is just an ordinary person who witnessed a fact. Second,
her fear for her life shows she is not a rehearsed witness, the lawyer
said.
Colmenares also said
her testimony is “crucial” as it corroborates earlier accounts of the
victim and some other witnesses.
“First, that Olivia
saw the victim being dumped links the woman to the van,” he said.
“Second, since the
woman came from the van and Olivia saw the van surfing around Subic
corroborates that the woman was raped while going around the area,” he
added.
Third, Colmenares
said the second condom (the first condom being the one recovered by police
investigators) proves that it was “gang rape.”
“The second condom
would further raise the nature of the crime to gang rape because it shows
that it was committed by at least two persons,” he said.
However, Colmenares
said the crime committed is still considered heinous “whether or not it
was only one of them who penetrated the victim.”
The other U.S.
servicemen who rode the van could be considered “conspirators.”
“All of them
contributed to the crime,” he said. “And that includes the driver.”
Colmenares has not
met Olivia but based his comments on this reporter’s account of the
interview with the witness.
Something missing
The human rights
lawyer however said there is “something missing”. “I believe the police
is keeping something,” he said.
Colmenares said there
is a big possibility that the police already had custody of the six U.S.
servicemen after the crime had been committed.
He pointed out that
nobody could have gotten the full names of the six accused if the police
were not able to interview the suspects face-to face.
He said the victim
could not have taken all their names because she was drunk. Neither did
the driver because nobody registers the full names of his/her companions
when renting a vehicle, he added.
A hearing is set at
the Olongapo City Municipal Trial Court on Nov. 23.
Fear
It took two nights,
two days before Olivia agreed to be interviewed. She rejected
Bulatlat’s request twice. But after some prodding, she finally agreed to tell what she knew about the
biggest rape scandal involving American soldiers to hit the country after
the rape case of 12-year old Rosario Baluyot in 1987.
Olivia admitted
working as a prostitute during in the 1980s, when the U.S. bases were
still here. She agreed to be interviewed on condition of anonymity.
Bulatlat
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