The Subic Rape Case

So it was not rape but a romantic episode.

I don’t know how romantic it was for Nicole to be dumped like a pig in a dark corner of a pier with her pants down. I don’t know how romantic it was for Nicole to be referred to by a companion of US Marine Daniel Smith as a “bitch.”

When Nicole recovered consciousness, Smith was already on top of her, kissing her all over even as she was resisting his advances. But according to the Court of Appeals (CA), Nicole could not have been raped. The court said, “Her going to Subic from far away Zamboanga with her stepsister, (with) two American friends whom they met only about three months earlier and accepting their offer of free hotel accommodations and other things as well—in her words, ‘to enjoy’—do not coincide with the demure provinciana lass we are talking about.” Was the CA saying that a woman would have no right to claim rape if she accepted free hotel accommodation from a male friend or did not act like a demure provinciana lass?

Finally, Smith has been acquitted. He has gone back home to the United States, free of any accountability. Thanks to the US war on terror. Thanks to the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

The VFA has created a condition that makes US military personnel assume they are entitled to rape Filipino women in the Philippines as a reward for military service here. Wars of aggression promote this kind of mind-set.

Remember the “comfort women” of World War II? Remember Subic and Clark during, or even after, the Vietnam War—the child abuse, the rapes, the prostitution those bases bred? They remind us that once we bind our country to an agreement in furtherance of a war of aggression, the exploitation and the trampling of our nation’s dignity will not be far behind.

Indeed, the “romantic” ties between the Philippines and the United States are effectively acts of rape with our sovereignty as the not-so-demure victim.

—NORMA P. DOLLAGA, general secretary, Kapatirang Simbahan Para sa Bayan (Kasimbayan), Women’s Collective