Gonzalez confirms Pinay rape victim's wish to recant

Sinabi ito ni Gonzalez kay Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Miriam sa isang closed door meeting.

Totoo pala ang balita ng Malaya 2 days ago. Ito ang relevant part:

OLONGAPO CITY – Two officials of the Department of Justice requesting anonymity confirmed reports Wednesday that the alleged rape victim had wanted to meet with Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez to recant her charges that she was raped by the six US Marines last Nov. 1.

"Her recantation is that what she remembers is that she was being kissed. She wants to delete the element of rape in her original complaint-affidavit," one of the officials said.

Gonzalez on Tuesday turned down the request of the victim who was with lawyer Minerva Ambrosio to see him, saying he did not want to be accused of being biased.

After Gonzalez rejection, the victim and her lawyer went to the office of Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño and State Prosecutor Lilian Alejo to subscribe her supplemental-complaint affidavit of withdrawal of the charges.

"The victim was advised by Zuño to go to the fiscal in Olongapo at 7 a.m. today (Wednesday) so that she would not be seen by the media. If that portion (rape allegation) is deleted, the case will be dead. It will be lessened to sexual abuse or sexual molestation," one of the officials said.

They said government can still pursue the case for the allegations of sexual molestation, but the victim’s recantation gravely weakens the case against the accused.

The alleged victim, Ambrosio and her other lawyer Katrina Legarda were absent in the preliminary hearing at the Olongapo Prosecutor’s Office.

Maria Sheila Bazar, appearing as lead counsel for the victim, said they would no longer present the victim to "shield her from further embarrassment."

Three possibilities:

a) The rape really happened at nagka-areglohan. The people responsible for quietly settling the case (same guys who "soft touched" mahusay, doble and garcia?) also asked the victim to drop the rape accusations para hindi ito magamit na issue in the future laban sa US presence inside the RP (because the plan doing more operations inside the Philippines.) How much is P1 Mil in US dollars. $18.5K? $60K is more than P3Mil yes? That's chump change for the US gov't.

b) The woman's a gold-digging schemer. She wanted to take advantage of the US servicemen by making up this rape story thinking she could earn a quick cash settlement. Either she backed off right because her case was weak, or she got the US suckers to pay her to keep quiet. If this is what really happened, then there's no point in keeping her identity a secret. Hindi naman pala siya "bikitima" eh. She's the guilty schemer.

c) She was having so much fun with the boys inside the van that she passed out, so she couldn't remember certain parts of what happened. Is it rape btw if a guy had sex with an unconscious or semi-conscious woman he met at a bar?

"Her recantation is that what she remembers is that she was being kissed. She wants to delete the element of rape in her original complaint-affidavit," one of the officials said.

But whatever is the case, this reminds me of the boy who cried wolf. One of these days, kapag may-umiyak ulit na "rape," wala nang maniniwala sa kanila.