VFA suspension if rape case bungled

The reported gang rape of a Filipina by US Marines in Subic turned instantly into an orgy of sensationalism and sexism. The facts weren’t in yet. It wasn’t even clear if six or five or one serviceman sexually assaulted the lass from Zamboanga. Yet politicians of all stripes felt obliged to weigh in with yells of abrogating the Visiting Forces Agreement to reviewing all US investments in RP. One newspaper bannered that the victim was no sex worker, implying that she would have deserved the rape had she been one. Lawyers inserted threats of perjury raps against the Filipino driver of a van in which the crime was committed, if he recants as sketchy reports claimed. Yet none could explain a gap. If only one soldier did the raping but the rest were implicated for letting it happen, then why was the driver not similarly charged for cruising the van around for 15 minutes while the misdeed was unfolding onboard?

There was a flurry of extreme words too from RP and US authorities. On one hand, the Malacañang spokesman feebly invoked legal process in a land where the term is as abstract as surreal art. On the other, a US embassy aide allegedly confronted demonstrators with an arrogant line that the girl should’ve known what she was getting into by bar hopping with rednecks and then riding a van with them unescorted. Coupled with the politicians’ and press excesses, such words leave a public frustrated that justice will not be served.

To be sure, the US embassy has a duty to protect its boys in uniform. Their fighting men are their enforcers of security and foreign policy. Then again, the US has its own justice system. The VFA contains parts of it in that the military accord does not condone crime by US servicemen, and allows prosecution of such under RP laws. But the system also requires adequate defense for the accused, and protection from street mobs. It calls for parallel court martial of offenders, for the US wouldn’t want rapists loose in its own territory and prowling for new American victims. It is in the US interest to get to the bottom of the rape case.

Add to that the dire consequences of justice unmet. An upset Filipino public can incite officials to protagonist populism. If accused of failing to assert RP sovereignty, Malacañang may save face by suspending the VFA for a year, the same period required to resolve a serviceman’s crime. That could spell big losses for Filipinos who make good business supplying the US military with food and other essentials. But the effects on America would be graver.

Law dean Amado Valdez says the VFA allows unilateral suspension by any side. The effect on the US would be both geopolitical and financial. As VFA Commission executive director in 2002-2003, Valdez found out that the US uses the pact for training not only of active servicemen but reservists too. A year’s deferment would thus result to logistical bottlenecks in long-planned dispatches of military units to various war playgrounds in RP. It would be costly and inopportune to redeploy them to other countries with similar VFAs.

On top of that is the very point of a VFA with RP, says Valdez, which is to project US might in this part of the globe. Suspension would send US soldiers sailing out of Southeast Asia, and even heighten pressure for them to vacate military bases in Northern Asia. A rape-murder of an Okinawa teenager in 1995 had strained US-Japan relations. Since then, occasional sexual assaults, frequent aircraft noise, and unforgotten War casualties (a third of the island’s population died during the US conquest) have had Japanese calling for US departure. "The US will want to avoid all this," Valdez notes, "so they should satisfy RP demands." The US solicits token support from RP in the Iraq War and in the UN Security Council, but the VFA is the real ballgame.

Flexing RP muscle is easier said than done, though. Valdez reveals that in implementing the VFA, the government assigns only the Philippine military to arrange the schedules of US troop arrivals. That is because the AFP is starved for new war knowledge and technology, which it hopes to acquire from the VFA even if vicariously. "Our VFA negotiating panel does not have political officers embedded to assert other RP interests, political or financial," Valdez rues.

Still, the rape will be a test case for both US and RP. For purely legal reasons, proper handling can avoid repeats in the future. More than that, satisfactory resolution could avoid imponderable moves by any side.

* * *

The Teodoro R. Yangco Memorial Foundation celebrates today the 144th birthday of its founder with the unveiling of a marker at his Zambales hometown of San Antonio. Simple rites will recall Don Teodoro’s works for the poor and unwed mothers, and as head of the early Associated Charities of Manila and the Anti-Tuberculosis Society.

Born on Nov. 9, 1861, Don Teodoro found fame and fortune in vast interests in sea and land transportation, banking and trading. More than his business success, he was noted for philanthropy. Among these: donations of land and money to erect the YMCA building and the Gota de Leche (now a National Heritage site), and founding the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Schooled in the Ateneo, University of Sto. Tomas, and London School of Economics, Don Teodoro in 1917 was elected Resident Commissioner to the United States, and served as director of Liceo de Manila and the Economic Association of the Philippine Islands.

Shortly before he died on Apr. 20, 1939 at age 78, Don Teodoro set up the Foundation. For more info, contact the TRYMF office at (02) 7269676.

* * *

E-mail: [email protected]