I’ve been to the Neptune Bar in Subic, where Smith and Nicole hooked up. It’s virtually indistinguishable from the relatively upscale, though still sleazy, videoke bars one finds scattered around Manila, Angeles or Olongapo. It caters to a mixed clientele of locals, tourists, expats and periodically, to hordes of U.S. servicemen on R & R. The Neptune is not a place where one expects to meet choirboys.
Nicole wandered in late that hot, fateful night after bar-hopping earlier with her sister and the latter’s boyfriend, an American serviceman. Smith and his posse were there and, by all accounts, he and Nicole hit it off. They promptly proceeded to get even more smashed. So drunk was Nicole that she left the bar on piggy-back, carried by Smith to the Marines’ hired van.
Things now get stickier. That Smith and Nicole has sex in van is an admitted fact. Smith says it was consensual. Nicole says she was forced into having sex with Smith, with the three other co-accused cheering their buddy on. But as the court ruled, Nicole was too inebriated to say yes.
After the rape, Nicole was unceremoniously dumped in the gutter, sans pants. There were a number of witnesses who saw this. I suspect it was this ultimate humiliation that did Smith and company in.
Under Philippine law, these circumstances would be enough to support a rape conviction.
But was justice served ? I, and a lot of others, are not so sure. At the risk of possible castration at the hands my feminist friends, I will hazard the opinion that justice may not have been blind in this case.
The case almost immediately deteriorated into a political and cultural brawl. It was the Ugly Americans against the Oppressed, but Unbowed, Filipinos. Imperialist brutes against the victimized natives. Us against them.
The people and groups around Nicole seemed to have a clear agenda: to make Nicole stand in for all the Filipino women who were abused and violated by generations of foreign invaders, from the Spaniards, to the Japanese and, most visibly, the Americans. Hence, the insistence on anonymity, ostensibly to protect the victim’s identity, although Nicole has not been shy about giving statements to the media. Nicole’s cause was well-organized and, apparently, well-funded. It helped that the victim in this case was not a hapless, ignorant bar girl but a college-educated, middle-class maiden from a far province. It was easy to drum up support for Nicole.
Not surprisingly, the Americans were portrayed as callous barbarians. They brought it upon themselves. Their indifference to the sensibilities of other peoples and cultures were in full display. Typically, these cowboys behaved as if they still owned the Philippines. Damage control and P.R. attempts by the American camp were clumsy and ill-timed. It was easy to demonize Smith et. al.
But public opinion is not sufficient basis to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
At times, it appeared that the accused were persecuted rather than prosecuted.
My name is Grace Santos and I am the one who organized the Justice for Smith. We are giving Daniel’s picture to those who supports him and believed in him. Dan is a good person with a forgiving heart. He is not holding any grudges againsts anybody. He is very positve that things will be ok for him because he knows God is watching over him. Please include Dan in your prayers and to those people who supports him, let us be for vigilant.
If you have any questions with regards to the activities of the group Justice for Dan Justice for the Strangers, you can email me at [email protected] or text and call me at 09174904180. We will appreciate all your support and Dan is very thankful too.
Let us keep on fighting for the real victim of injustice.
God bless!
Do foreigners who commited crimes should NOT have their custody in their own country, are they?
Daniel Smith and Nicole met at a bar in the Philippines that is known to be a front for prostitutes and got drunk and did heavy petting and kissing.
They then went to a van and had sex while Smith’s friends were also in the van.
Initially, Nicole said that she was gang-raped. Then changed her story after a few days and said that she was raped by Smith only.
Nicole put the condom on Smith. She was wearing very tight jeans which is never easy to be taken out by another person without the help of whoever is wearing it. Nicole gave Smith a head before having intercourse.
When she was dropped off on the side of a VERY LIT pier, she was yelling, “I’m not a bitch” after one of Smith’s friends told Smith to “dropped off your bitch” or something to that effect because their curfew was almost up. Nicole’s pants was down to her knees and the condom still hanging out from her body.
The judge, Judge Pozon, said that Nicole was too drunk when their sex happened which made her too unconscious to consent to the sex. Smith was drunk too. Bar girls in the Philippines know how to fake drunk.
The judge said that he didn’t want the same thing to happen to his daughter and he said that he had been crying about the case that’s why he convicted Smith as guilty.
The Filipino driver of the van initially said that there was no rape. Then after a few days, he said that there was rape. Then the Vice President of the Philippines interviewed him wherein he said that he was FORCED to sign a paper by the Police that said that Smith raped Nicole eventhough he didn’t. The driver was prohibited to testify in court by the judge.
Smith’s Filipino lawyer was a real estate lawyer and he didn’t know about it until after the case. Lawyers in the Philippines can practice in any field. Smith changed his lawyer after that and filed an appeal to Court of Appeals there.
There are people who like rough sex, we don’t know if Nicole and Smith both like rough sex or bdsm which could result in some trauma after having sex.
The judge’s decision was based on emotion, not based on facts. He convicted Smith to be in jail for 40 years.
The case is now in Court of Appeals and has been there for 2 years. Smith is jailed in US Embassy there because of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) of the US and the Philippines, much to the outrage of Anti-Americans. The anti-Americans are always on the streets and outside the US Embassy protesting.
The Philippines is notorious for being known as corrupt. The girls befriend the foreigners and have sex with them. Then cry rape while they are in the motels and call the police. Once the police arrives, they ask the foreigners for money or else they will sue them. What do you think the foreigners would do?
The girls there also just want to get out of the Philippines and it doesn’t matter how. There were reports before that Nicole and her family have asked to give them US visas for them to cancel the case but they were denied.
It seems like the US media hasn’t really paid attention to this case which adds to the agony of Daniel Smith who is the real victim here and is being used by anti-Americans in the Philippines.
Nicole wasn’t treated right by Smith after the sex but all the evidence point to consensual sex, not rape.
Suzette (or Nicole) left for US LAST WEEK for good.
You guys be the judge if there was rape in the first place. Ha ha ha!
On the other hand, Suzette did the right thing instead of letting herself to be continually used by Gabriela and the leftists when in fact, she knows the truth.
Smith will now face the US Military Court Marshall but he will get a FAIR investigation there so he will be okay.
I wonder what kind of US visa did she get. There were reports before that she had a US military fiance so maybe that fiance or a different fiance petitioned her.
There are reports that said Suzette was petitioned by her fiance of 2 years to go to US.