Another visa trap

What do you do when the ace you hold against the Americans melts like ice cream in your hands? Go find another ace. In an enchanted country like the Philippines, there is never any shortage of magic tricks and magical moments.

And so, smarting from the “Nicole” debacle, wherein the “rape” victim who came close to succeeding in helping kick out American soldiers for good, suddenly recanted on being handed a US visa, Philippine leftist groups have quickly found another “rape” victim.

The new “rape” victim has been given, quite ironically, yet another American pseudonym, as had been Nicole. The leftists, who come under the name Gabriela, prefer that she be called Vanessa. We do not know why this is. We just thought Maria might be a more appropriate name.

Anyway, thanks to Nicole, and the extremely embarrassing situation she subjected the Philippines to, most Filipinos are now no longer about as ready and willing as they had been to be made suckers to any heart-rending tales designed to stir hatred against American GIs.

Filipinos now regard Vanessa with a great deal of caution and care, if not outright suspicion. The sympathy and anguish that had been so spontaneous with Nicole evaporated with her “betrayal” and now Vanessa will have to really scramble hard for her minute of attention.

There is also wisdom in exercising prudence in the case of Vanessa. Gabriela, her benefactor, or is it benefactress, is quite obviously in a recovery mood and may likely stop at nothing to redeem both pride and credibility. How above-board its options are, we do not know.

But Vanessa herself is encouraging us, unwittingly of course, to be wary and take her tale with a grain of salt. For starters, she said she is not pressing charges, wanting only for her case to be brought out into the open.

Those who come out with guns blazing and yet do not want to submit themselves to the jurisdiction of the courts, where everybody can have their day and due process can take place, cannot hope to be taken seriously by serious people.

Yet, not only is Vanessa unwilling to go to court, where her charges can be formalized, but the name of her supposed rapist, John Jones, sounds so generic and so phoney it may as well have been John Doe for all the world would care.

In her account, spoken through the mouth of Gabriela, Vanessa met John Doe, er, John Jones at a bar and, incredibly, from that casual meeting, the American proceeded to spill out all the personal details of his life as if they were going out of style.

John Doe, er, John Jones supposedly told Vanessa (conveniently for Gabriela, if you ask me) that he was involved in the Balikatan exercise (which Gabriela vehemently opposes) and that he was assigned to the JUSMAG (Joint US Military Advisory Group).

The story being spun here makes John Doe, er, John Jones, to be either so stupidly careless, or so desperately discombobulated for a quickie, that he empties his soul in the bar in a manner no security-conscious, 911-addled US soldier would do even under duress.

But there he was, probably mesmerized by the beauty of Vanessa (whose entire head Gabriela has wrapped in the thickest of covers) that he happily parts with her despite getting nothing but her cellphone number in exchange for all the information he had given her.

They met again a few days later. Other women would have been happy and relieved to have escaped the clutches of the Americans but Vanessa must truly be aching for some action because she gladly went with him for a party in some hotel.

Vanessa claims that when they got to the hotel, she found that there was no party (did she really believe that?) and that they were all alone in the room. She supposedly tried to leave but was “blocked, slapped, thrown onto the bed, and raped.”

 Okay, enough of the details because they look so pretty made up. If Vanessa now found out that the “American” lied about the party, why would she continue to believe his yarn about his name, his nationality, about Balikatan, as well as JUSMAG? Is this another visa trap?