DOJ lawyers confident Nicole testimony enough to convict GIs

The testimony of the alleged victim in the controversial Subic rape case is enough to convict the four accused US Marines, government prosecutors said yesterday.

In a 36-page memorandum filed yesterday at the Makati City Regional Trial Court, senior state prosecutor Emilie Fe delos Santos and state prosecutors Lagrimas Agaran, Elizabeth Berdal, and Nolibien Quiambao said they were able to prove the accused guilty beyond reasonable doubt "with moral certainty."

They explained that in rape cases, the accused may be convicted solely on the basis of the victim’s testimony. Judge Benjamin Pozon will decide on the case on Nov. 27, 2006 at 1 p.m.

"In this case, Nicole’s testimony was simple, straightforward, unshaken by rigid cross-examination, and unflawed by inconsistencies and contradiction," they said, referring to the private complainant.

They said evidence presented by 22 witnesses corroborated Nicole’s testimony during two months of hearings.

Based on testimonies gathered by prosecutors, Lance Corporal Daniel Smith raped the 23-year-old Nicole inside a moving Hyundai Starex van in Subic, Zambales on Nov. 1, 2005 as co-accused Lance Corporals Keith Silkwood, Dominic Duplantis, and Staff Sergeant Chad Carpentier, who were also passengers of the van, shouted "go, go, go Smith, go!"

Nicole’s government lawyers reminded Pozon of how the alleged victim, based on her own testimony and that of other witnesses, was carried out of Neptune Club, raped inside the moving van, and later dumped near the Alaba Pier with her jeans pulled down.

They also reminded the court of how Dr. Raquel Fortun testified that the injuries sustained by the alleged victim, particularly on her genitalia, were consistent with rape.

"Nicole’s testimony, therefore, unequivocally established the sexual abuse she suffered in the hands of accused Smith," the prosecution panel’s memorandum said.

"No woman would concoct a story of defloration, allow an examination of her private parts and subject herself to public ridicule if she has not, in truth, been a victim of rape and impelled to seek justice for the wrong done to her," the memorandum noted.