G A B R I E L A
N
E T W O R K U
S AA Philippine-US Women's Solidarity Mass Organization, est. 1989
STATEMENTS and RELEASES
STATEMENT ON RAPE CHARGES AGAINST U.S. MARINES
28 April 2006KEEPING RAPE CHARGES AGAINST U.S. MARINES IS GOOD,
ENDING U.S.-PHILIPPINE VISITING FORCES AGREEMENT IS BETTERIn an act of uncommon political will in the Philippines, Judge Benjamin Pozon today decided not to downgrade the rape charges against 3 of 4 accused US marines. While we at GABRIELA Network, a Philippine-US women’s solidarity mass organization in the US, welcome this decision, we call for heightened vigilance to ensure that the decision is not reversed and that justice for the rape victim “Nicole” be served immediately. We continue our demand for an end to the US-Philippine Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA)—--a military agreement between an old colonial master and colony that perpetrates violence against Filipino women, undermines Philippine sovereignty, and mocks the Philippine and American people’s ideals of true democracy and freedom.
Judge Pozon’'s ruling was contrary to an earlier request by Philippine Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales to downgrade the rape charges against 3 of the 4 US servicemen who are among the original 6 accused of gang raping a 22-year old Filipina last November 1, 2005, at the former US naval base in Subic, Olongapo, Philippines. Two of the accused have already been exonerated. Justice Secretary Gonzales used his power and influence in favor of the US marines. In the months following the filing of the rape charges on November 4, 2005, Gonzales refused to grant the prosecution team’s requests, to secure documents and other evidence that could help the prosecutors, failed to transfer the custody of the suspects from the US Embassy to the Philippine criminal justice system. Judge Pozon’'s decision, standing firmly against political pressure and for due process, is indeed one to laud.
GABNet, along with GABRIELA Philippines and women the world over, will be watching the case closely. Historical experience shows that crimes perpetrated by the US military in the Philippine archipelago have more or less gone unpunished. In 1991, a US soldier escaped prosecution for raping an 8-year old girl when US servicemen were flown out of Subic following the eruption of nearby Mount Pinatubo. In 1987, another US soldier slipped through the justice system and skipped prosecution after allegedly raping and killing a bar girl in Olongapo. From 1981 through 1988, 97 cases of sexual abuse, 15 involving girls aged 11 to 16, were filed but subsequently dismissed. We at GABNet vow to do all we can to see that such impunity, such vicious trampling on women'’s rights and dignity, does not happen again.
Justice for Nicole will be a step towards making the US-Philippine military accountable for all it has done to the Philippine nation. While we at GABNet will surely celebrate Nicole'’s victory when it happens, we will hold to our demand for the abrogation of VFA. US and Philippine governments have time and again invoked the VFA to justify the presence of US military in the Philippines, to justify bilateral military exercises that have displaced and victimized hundreds of thousands of Philippine households and to justify procedures that generally render US soldiers immune to Philippine law. Until lopsided treaties and agreements like the VFA are repealed, the Philippines will continue to be at the command of its “former” colonial master, the US. Rooting out the cause is the only real way to end the abuse and exploitation of Filipino women. ###
STATEMENTS and RELEASES
2006 | 2005 | archive