Legal luminaries prepare for trial of Subic rape victim

Former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, former senator Rene Saguisag and former University of the Philippines law deans Pacifico Agabin and Merlin Magalona, and other topnotch private prosecutors are set to face in court a battery of lawyers defending the four US Marines accused of raping a 22-year old Filipina at Subic Bay Freeport last year.

Meanwhile, Makati regional trial court Judge Benjamin Pozon, who is handling the case, and her branch clerk of court, lawyer Liza Picardal, said they have not yet received a manifestation from the Department of Justice that it does not agree with the court’s decision rejecting the downgrading of the charges against three of the accused.

Evalyn Ursua of the Women’s Legal Bureau (WLB), one of the Filipina’s private prosecutors, said the prosecution panel will present in court more than 10 witnesses against Lance Corporals Daniel Smith, Dominic Duplantis, Keith Silkwood and S/Sgt. Chad Carpentier.

In an interview, Ursua told The STAR the preliminary conference scheduled by Pozon on May 12 will be preparatory to a full-blown legal battle.

During the preliminary conference, issues will be defined, facts will be stipulated, and evidences presented and marked, and the names of possible witnesses presented and identified, she added.

Ursua said during preliminary conferences, rules or boundaries are set in place and agreed upon by both the prosecution and the defense for a smooth, orderly and fast judicial process.

"We believe that the judge is bent on speeding up the trial, he made it clear when he called us for a conference inside the chamber during the arraignment," he said.

"He asked both camps to cooperate so that the trial can be finished in one year."

Ursua said the idea of finishing the proceedings in less than 12 months is not actually meant to follow the rules of the Visiting Forces Agreement.

But since the lower court is yet to decide on the prosecution’s motion to declare several provisions of the same as unconstitutional, the one-year deadline by which the US Marines can be tried stands, she added. — Michael Punongbayan