‘Driver in Subic rape could still be charged’

The driver of the van where a 22-year-old Filipina was allegedly raped by a US Marine while his buddies watched could still be charged as an accessory to the crime although an Olongapo City judge has dismissed the case against him for lack of probable cause, prosecution lawyers said yesterday.

Government and private prosecutors said Timoteo Soriano Jr. is mistaken in his belief that the Olongapo court’s findings of lack of probable cause for the issuance of a warrant of arrest against him could insulate him from a new charge of rape.

Soriano was accused of driving the van around Subic Bay Freeport in Zambales in November last year, while a US Marine allegedly raped the woman known only as "Nicole," as three other servicemen reportedly cheered on.

The four accused US Marines are Lance Corporals Daniel Smith, Keith Silkwood, Dominic Duplantis, and S/Sgt. Chad Carpentier.

On orders of the Supreme Court, the case has been moved from the Olongapo City regional trial court to the Makati City regional trial court.

Answering Soriano’s rebuttal of their petition to reinstate him as a respondent, the prosecutors said the Supreme Court has ruled that the dismissal of a case for lack of probable cause for the issuance of a warrant of arrest, as in Soriano’s case, cannot be a bar to another prosecution or double jeopardy.