‘Nicole’ more truthful in latest affidavit
March 19, 2009 15:21:00
Leila Salaverria Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
lira.fernandez@inquirer.net Philippine Daily Inquirer INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE) “Nicoleâ€, the Filipino woman who accused an American Marine of raping her in 2005, told more of the truth in her latest affidavit, according to a lawmaker who was among the first to talk to her following the incident.
Zambales Representative Milagros Magsaysay said the March 12 affidavit that virtually cleared American serviceman Daniel Smith of rape is more credible than the first one that she had filed along with her criminal complaint.
Speaking at the Serye Forum in Quezon City, Magsaysay said Nicole's first affidavit was actually not the complete version of the truth that Nicole had narrated to her.
Based on the circumstances surrounding the case, she said it seems that no rape took place.
“If you would look at the circumstances surrounding it, it would appear that she was not raped,†Magsaysay said.
Three years after Lance Corporal Daniel Smith was convicted of rape and sentenced to 40 years in jail, Nicolas submitted a five-page affidavit to an appeals court Tuesday saying she now doubts her own version of events.
"My conscience continues to bother me realizing that I may have in fact been so friendly and intimate with Daniel Smith ... that he was led to believe that I was amenable to having sex or that we simply just got carried away," the woman said in the statement.
She described the two were drinking, kissing and dancing at a bar at the former US Naval base at Subic Bay before moving to a van, where she originally told the court she was raped while she passed out on November 1, 2005. Smith had insisted the sex was consensual.
Magsaysay said: “Whatever she said in this affidavit that came out is more or less sticking to the facts.â€
Magsaysay was among the first persons who had spoken to Nicole and several witnesses, including Nicole’s cousin, sister and the driver of the van, shortly after the incident.
The incident happened in Subic, which is part of Magsaysay’s congressional district.
Magsaysay said that the details mentioned by Nicole in her second affidavit were consistent with what the victim told her in 2005.
“All of them were correct— that she was mixing her drinks, that she didn’t want to return to her room, that she went with the American, she rode on the van, all those are correct,†Magsaysay said.
Asked how the first affidavit differed from the latest one, the lawmaker replied: “All I can remember is it was not a factual [account] of the truth as she told me. Parang medyo [It's as if] there were some information left out … of her affidavit and the driver's affidavit.â€
Magsaysay said that Nicole “might have invited (Smith) and gave him the wrong signals.â€
The congresswoman said that when she talked to Nicole, she latter did not say she was raped.
“She was more afraid that her mother would get mad at her for what happened,†Magsaysay said.
The turnabout has shocked Nicole’s supporters, including lawyer Evalyn Ursua, who said her client terminated her services this week then moved to the US to start a new life and was no longer willing to talk.
Smith, 23, from St. Louis, Missouri, has been detained at the US Embassy while his case is on appeal. Last month, the Philippine Supreme Court ruled he should be serving his sentence in a Philippine jail but left it to the government to negotiate his transfer with Washington. Smith is appealing his conviction.
The case has strained US-Philippine military relations amid calls for the scrapping of a pact allowing US troops to train Filipino soldiers, and has become a rallying point for anti-American protests. With The Associated Press
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