US Marines refuse to give blood samples

Four US Marines on trial over the alleged rape of a Filipino woman at the Subic freeport in Zambales in November last year refused yesterday to submit blood samples that prosecutors claim would link at least one of them to the crime.

Prosecutors has asked the Makati City regional trial court to compel Staff Sergeant Chad Carpentier and Lance Corporals Daniel Smith, Keith Silkwood and Dominic Duplantis to submit blood samples for DNA testing.

The government lawyers claim the tests would help identify DNA from samples from bodily fluids found in the woman’s underwear after the alleged sexual assault at the former US naval base of Subic Bay on Nov. 1, 2005.

The woman has testified that Smith lured her out of a Subic Bay bar after a night of heavy drinking and then raped her inside a rented van with the three other Marines cheering him on.

The Marines, who have pleaded not guilty to the charge of rape, face up to 40 years in jail if convicted. Smith has said that the sex was consensual.

The alleged crime occurred shortly after the defendants took part in a joint US-Philippine military training.

Smith’s Filipino lawyer Benjamin Formoso told the court yesterday that the rules of court do not compel the defendants to submit evidence unless prosecutors can prove first that it is relevant to the case.

Formoso said prosecutors must first show the judge "how the samples (of body fluids on the woman’s garments) were collected."

They must show "how they were handled, the possibility of contamination of the samples, the procedure followed in analyzing the sample, whether the proper standards and procedures were followed in conducting the test and lastly the qualification of the analysts who conducted the test," the lawyer said.

"To have herein (the) accused submit blood samples would be a useless exercise and a waste of good blood," Enrico Uyehara, lawyer for Duplantis, told the court. — AFP, Rhodina Villanueva