GI submits to court van driver’s statement swearing no rape took place

The principal accused in the Subic rape case presented in court yesterday an affidavit in which the driver of the van, where a 23-year-old Filipina was allegedly raped last year, swore that no rape took place, after the driver refused to take the witness stand.

In his formal offer of evidence to the Makati City regional trial court, Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, the 21-year-old US Marine accused of raping the woman known only as Nicole, also submitted a transcript of Timoteo Soriano Jr.’s radio interview with Vice President Noli de Castro 11 days after the alleged rape.

In refusing to testify for the defense and prosecution, Soriano has invoked his right against self-incrimination.

The Department of Justice has threatened to reinstate Soriano as an accused after he rejected the prosecution’s request for him to testify against Smith and his three co-accused, Lance Corporals Keith Silkwood and Dominic Duplantis and S/Sgt. Chad Bryan Carpentier.

Originally, Soriano was charged as a co-accused but the Olongapo City judge who first heard the rape case discharged him without his being arraigned.

In response, the prosecution questioned before the Court of Appeals the validity of the Olongapo judge’s decision, and the case is still pending with the CA.

After the Olongapo judge had discharged Soriano as a co-accused, the Supreme Court ordered the Subic rape to be transferred to the Makati Regional Trial Court for trial.

The affidavit presented by the defense in court yesterday is Soriano’s second sworn statement, dated Dec. 9, 2005, which he had executed before his lawyer, Raulito Paras and submitted to the Olongapo City Prosecutor’s Office.

In his first statement executed before an investigator of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority shortly after the alleged rape, Soriano swore that Nicole was gang-raped at the back of the van which he was driving.

The prosecution tried to present the first affidavit before the Makati court, but Judge Benjamin Pozon rejected it on grounds that Soriano refused to validate the affidavit at the witness stand.

Through his lawyer Benjamin Formoso, Smith has offered a total of 28 exhibits in court to prove that he did not rape Nicole.

Smith’s formal offer of evidence includes the counter-affidavits of his three co-accused.

Other pieces of evidence presented included photographs of Neptune Club, photographs of the Alaba Pier, a US Naval Criminal Investigation Service (USNCIS) report by special agent Bruce Warshawsky, a map of the SBMA in Zambales, the affidavit of Lance Corporal Justin Michael Bamberger who testified for the defense, and the credentials and books authored by obstetrician and gynecologist Teresita Sanchez who testified as an expert witness for the defense.

The defense rested its case last week after presenting six witnesses, and after only eight hearing days compared to more than 20 prosecution witnesses that covered more than two months of trial.

On Thursday and Friday, the prosecution will present USNCIS special agents Guy Papageorge and Tony Ramos as rebuttal witnesses.

Unless the defense decides to present more witnesses for a sur-rebuttal, the Subic rape trial is expected to finally come to an end this week.

Pozon said he originally planned to issue a decision before Nov. 1, but too many delays prolonged the process.