‘Nicole’ recants, clears Daniel Smith

[godwhacker]

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‘Nicole’ already staying in US, fires lawyer in Subic rape case
M. MERUEÑAS and J. SISANTE, GMANews.TV
03/17/2009 | 12:42 PM


MANILA, Philippines – "Nicole," the Filipina who was sexually assaulted by an American serviceman in 2005, is now in the US and has terminated the services of her lawyer in the Subic rape case involving Lance Corporal Daniel Smith.

Lawyer Neri Colmenares, head of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, and Nicole's former legal counsel Evalyn Ursua said Nicole’s mother had confirmed that her daughter is no longer in the Philippines.

GMANews.TV tried but failed to confirm from Nicole's mother if her daughter indeed flew to the US. But Lotlot Requizo who has direct contact with Nicole's family said that she was able to confirm from Nicole's mother that the Filipina is already in the US.

"I even invited her (Nicole's mother) to attend the launching of a coalition against the VFA. But she declined. Hindi na raw siguro kasi pagod na sila [Maybe not anymore because they are already tired], said Requizo, co-coordinator of Task Force Subic Rape.

Nicole's mother is staying at Camp Navarro in Zambonga City, according to Requizo.

Termination

"Nicole terminated the services for legal counseling of Attorney Ursua at 5 p.m. yesterday [Monday]. Sabi ng nanay niya [Nicole], nasa US na siya [Nicole’s mother said her daughter is already in the US]," Colmenares told media in a text message.

Colmenares, Ursua, and members of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) led by its secretary general Renato Reyes Jr on Tuesday appeared at a press conference in Quezon City to launch the Junk VFA Movement.

Ursua said she talked to Nicole's mother for only a few minutes last Monday, and the latter told her that "nasa Estados Unidos na siya last week pa" [she (Nicole) is already in the United States since last week].

Ursua said she had been trying to contact Nicole since last week but her calls were not being returned. Nicole's family no longer sees justice in the Philippines and has decided to just give up the fight, according to the lawyer.

Colmenares blamed the Arroyo administration for the latest developments in the rape case against Smith who is detained at the US Embassy in Manila.

Collusion

"The Filipino people should be outraged by the further subversion of our justice system by the US-Arroyo governments, when they pressured Nicole – who is now in the US according to her mother – to terminate the services of Ursua," Colmenares said.

"The US-Arroyo collusion is further proven by the failure of President [Gloria Macapagal] Arroyo to negotiate and demand from President [Barack] Obama the return of Smith to Philippine custody as ordered by the Supreme Court," Colmenares added.

The Supreme Court in February ordered Smith's transfer to Philippine custody, while the governments of the Philippines and the US renegotiate the terms of the Marine's detention.

But the Palace has not yet received information that the rape victim had already left the country. "Hindi namin namo-monitor kung nasan siya (Nicole) [We have not monitored Nicole's whreabouts]," Cabinet Secretary Silvestre Bello III in a radio dzBB interview.

Colmenares said the "people should demand that President Arroyo be charged with contempt for refusing to negotiate the return of Smith as ordered by the Supreme Court and for continuing the Philippine justice system," he said.

Colmenares, who also represents Bayan and Gabriela, was among the petitioners who asked the Supreme Court in late February to reverse its ruling upholding the constitutionality of the VFA.

Bello appealed to Nicole's supporters not to connect President Arroyo's recent phone conversation with Obama to Smith's rape case.

"Wala akong nakikitang relasyon ng pag-uusap ni President Arroyo at ni President Obama [I don't see a relation between the rape case and Mrs. Arroyo's conversation with President Obama]," said Bello.

"Hindi ko nakikita yung relasyon ng kaso ni Nicole against Daniel Smith [I don't see its connection to Nicole's case against Daniel Smith]," he added. - GMANews.TV

[godwhacker]

DoJ chief: Why did Nicole go to US? Why not in Italy?
03/17/2009 | 07:44 PM


MANILA, Philippines - Why in the US? The home country of her rapist, the nation being criticized for the alleged unfair policies it implements under the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

This appears to be the question of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez as he expressed doubts that “Nicole" went to the US because she was frustrated with the justice system in the Philippines. He said Nicole’s decision to go the US ironically “shows that her supposed…grief and hatred expressed before is not very genuine."

“If she just went to Italy may be that would be more illustrative of her feelings against the US. But she did not go to Italy. She went to the US," Gonzalez told media on Tuesday.

The justice secretary said that Nicole once asked his help to get a visa for Italy. But Gonzalez said he refused Nicole’s request because he wanted her to stay and show her intention in pursuing her case.

Nicole is the pseudonym of a 23-year-old Filipina who was raped in November 2005 by the then 21-year old Lance Corporal Daniel Smith inside a van at the former US naval base in Subic in Olongapo City.

Smith was sentenced to 40 years in prison after he was convicted by the Regional Trial Court of Makati City on December 4, 2006. He stays at a detention facility at the US Embassy in Manila.

Cause-oriented groups in the Philippines are bewailing the “one-sidedness" of the VFA. They are pressuring the US government to abrogate the agreement and turn over Smith to Philippine authorities.

Nicole’s case has helped intensify campaigns against the VFA. The Justice chief believes Nicole has no reason to become frustrated because “there is a loud cry from people who shared her…grief in the past."

“Why should she feel that way? In the first place, she won the first round on her battle in the [RTC]," said Gonzalez.

Last February 11, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the VFA, but it also ordered the transfer of Smith from the US Embassy to a detention facility under Philippine authorities.

However, the government has not yet implemented the decision because Smith’s case is still pending at the Court of Appeals, according to presidential deputy spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo. GMANews.TV

[godwhacker]

'Nicole' receives P100,000 indemnification from Smith
AIE BALAGTAS SEE, GMANews.TV
03/17/2009 | 08:59 PM

MANILA, Philippines — "Nicole" has received a P100,000 amount from her convicted rapist, US Marine Lance Corporal Daniel J. Smith, court records released to media on Tuesday showed.

Nicole acknowledged receipt of the amount in a “Receipt and Release" document she executed on March 12, 2009, in Makati City.

She also executed a “sworn statement" apparently altering her testimony on the rape case, and a “notice of termination" of the services of lawyer Evalyn G. Ursua as her counsel in the case.

In the document, she stated that she has “released, remised and forever discharged" Smith and his heirs “from any and all claims, demands or causes of action arising from the indemnity and compensatory damages" awarded to her by the Regional Trial Court of Makati’s Branch 139 in Criminal Case No.06-651 entitled “People of the Philippines vs. L/CPLDaniel J. Smith, et. Al."

Nicole is the pseudonym of a 23-year-old Filipina who was raped in November 2005 by the then 21-year old Smith inside a van at the former US naval base in Subic in Olongapo City.

A ruling by the court on Dec. 4, 2006 found Smith guilty of the charge and sentenced him to 40 years in prison. The court acquitted his four companions.

The court also ordered Smith to indemnify Nicole the amount of P50,000 as compensatory damages plus P50,000 as moral damages.

Smith’s continued stay at a detention facility at the US Embassy in Manila pending resolution of his appeal before the Court of Appeals has fueled calls by militants for the scrapping of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the United States and the Philippines.

Lawyers and activist groups who supported Nicole in her fight for justice, however, disclosed on Tuesday that Nicole has terminated the services of one of Ursua and that she was already in the United States.

In the "Receipt and Release" document, Nicole stated that the payment of the amount was strictly voluntary on the part of Smith “and shall not in any way be construed as admission of liability, of whatever nature," on the part of Smith notwithstanding his appeal before the Court of Appeals.

“This instrument may be pleaded as an absolute and final bar to any proceedings against Daniel J. Smith or any person released herein insofar as the same may relate to the civil aspect of Criminal Case No. 06-651," said the document.

She further stated that in connection with the release and discharge of the civil liability of Smith, she was “clarify[ing] certain aspects" of her testimony on the rape case.

Copies of the sworn statement, however, were not immediately available.

Smith’s counsel, the Sycip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan law firm, subsequently submitted to the Court of Appeals all three documents signed by Nicole for the court’s reference and to form part of the records of the case. GMANews.TV

[godwhacker]

^^^ So now it can be told. Wa dyud diay cya ma rape. Gisakyan man gud dayon sa mga militante ug mga pula maong nabulabug. It is the Court of Appeals handling the case but it is the government getting the flak! Unsa man diay ning atong CA under diay ni sa executive? Pagtoo man gud nako ug under ni sa Supreme Court.

[godwhacker]

‘Nicole’ recants

By Norman Bordadora
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:30:00 03/17/2009


MANILA, Philippines—The Filipino woman who accused an American Marine of raping her late in 2005 and testified about her ordeal in court has recanted.

The sworn statement issued by "Nicole" on March 12 comes more than two years after the Makati Regional Trial Court convicted Lance Corporal Daniel Smith of raping her.

Nicole said she expected her motives to be questioned but maintained she was bothered by her conscience

“I expect many sectors to question my motives in executing this statement more than three years after the incident. However…I can’t help but entertain doubts on whether the sequence of events in Subic last November of 2005 really occurred the way the court found them to have happened,” Nicole said in her affidavit.

“My conscience continues to bother me realizing that I may have in fact been so friendly and intimate with Daniel Smith at the Neptune Club that he was led to believe that I was amenable to having *** or that we simply just got carried away,” she said.

“I would rather risk public outrage than do nothing to help the court in ensuring that justice is served,” she added.

Nicole said she practically grew up interacting with American servicemen in Zamboanga City “who treated me and my family very well.”

She also questioned her decorum when she met Smith at the Neptune Club at the Subic Freeport, saying she was so drunk she may have lost her inhibitions and did more than just dance with the Marine.

Nicole also raised doubts that Smith raped her inside a van at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone and suggested that she may have welcomed the Marine’s sexual advances.

“I told the court that Daniel Smith kissed my lips and neck and held my breast inside the van. Recalling my testimony, I ask myself how I could have remembered this if witnesses told the court that I passed out and looked unconscious,” Nicole said.

“How could I have resisted his advances given this condition? Daniel Smith and I were alone on the third row of the van which had limited space and I do not recall anyone inside the van who held my hand or any part of my body,” she added.

Nicole said all she could remember was the “very loud music and shouting inside the van.”

“With the events at the Neptune Club in mind, I keep on asking myself, if Daniel Smith wanted to rape me why would he carry me out of the Neptune Club using the main entrance in full view of the security guard and the other customers?”

“Why would Daniel Smith and his companions bring me to the seawall of Alaba pier and casually leave this area that was well-lighted and with many people roaming around? If they believed that I was raped, would they have not dumped me instead in a dimly lit area…to avoid detection?”

Nicole said with the amount of alcohol she had consumed that night and only a slice of pizza to eat, she may have lost her inhibitions and enjoyed Smith’s company.

“I had no opportunity to deny in court that I kissed Daniel Smith but, with the amount of alcoholic mixed drinks I took, my low tolerance level for alcohol and with a slice of pizza all night, it dawned upon me that I may have possibly lost my inhibitions, became so intimate with Daniel Smith and did more that just [dance and talk] with him like everyone else on the dance floor,” Nicole said.

“Looking back, I would not have agreed to talk with Daniel Smith and dance with him no less that three times if I did not enjoy his company or was at least attracted to him since I met him for the very first time on the dance floor of Neptune Club,” she added.

[godwhacker]

^^^Gikan pa kaniadtu while the trial was going on, nagtoo na ko nga wa cya gi rape. And the truth came out. Sakit kaayo ni sa mga ni sympathize niya. It was a futile cause. Truth hurts indeed.

[eax]

^^^Gikan pa kaniadtu while the trial was going on, nagtoo na ko nga wa cya gi rape. And the truth came out. Sakit kaayo ni sa mga ni sympathize niya. It was a futile cause. Truth hurts indeed.

Ako pud.

I don't believe na gi-rape siya. Maybe nadala lang siya mga activists.

[wak_wak]

i knew it i knew it from the start na in ani ang ending sa case.

whatever!

[istoryaaah]

LOL!! US visa ray presyo nimo "NICOLE" oi. pa arte arte pa kang animala ka.... paabot pa kag 3 years hahahaha... pag larga sa gawas abtika ka balitok oi...

You see now? Money and Power can bring out the best in life...

[godwhacker]

^^^Iyang ermats gipakita sa interview, pwerting mabawa ug mga rason. Maayo na nga adtu na gyud sa Tate "tilawan" ni Nicole tanan. Wa siguro to ma satisfy ni Smith. Ang mga Gabriela ini morag gisagpa wag-tuo.