Editorial

Compromised

The immediate reaction to the release of the sworn statement of Suzette Nicolas, formerly known only as ?Nicole,? was to seek the opinion of legal experts. How would this affect the case of Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith, now pending before the Court of Appeals? A Makati judge had convicted Smith of rape, on the strength of Nicolas? testimony, in December 2006.

Nicolas says she now doubts whether she was raped. She concedes that she might have given Smith the impression that she was amenable to having consensual sex with him. ?It dawned upon me that I may have possibly lost my inhibitions.?

Nicolas? mother insists nobody pressured her daughter to come out with the statement even as it was released at the height of calls for the re-negotiation of the Visiting Forces Agreement and a few days after the call of US President Barack Obama to President Arroyo.

Both Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez and Nicolas? former lawyer, Evalyn Ursua, say the affidavit does not immediately translate to Smith?s acquittal. They cite technical reasons.

But let the lawyers ponder the legal and political implications of Nicolas? carefully crafted words?released, most curiously, by Smith?s lawyer rather than her own. The rest of the country, who followed the crusade of a girl against what seemed to be formidable odds, simply feels duped.

Her words, measured against the drama surrounding the trial and the fervor with which women?s groups supported her cause, make Nicolas a disappointment, to say the least.

Worse, thousands of legitimate rape victims may find themselves facing the additional burden of a tarnished credibility through no fault of their own, as they try to get justice for their ordeal.

Ultimately, the grieving, shrouded girl has revealed who she is?and ?victim? is not the word for it.

Media as vote-getter
??Journalism,? G.K. Chesterton once complained, ?largely consists in saying ?Lord Jones is dead? to people who never knew Lord Jones was alive.? In this era of manufactured celebrity and mass-marketed name recall, media is still the fastest way to transform virtually unknown people into easily identifiable ?personalities??usually right before an election and hopefully before the newspapers announce their death.

The Legacy saga continues
The recantation of ?Nicole,? the alias of Suzette Nicolas, the alleged rape victim of Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith, is a good study for non-lawyers on how the criminal justice system works.

Did ?Nicole? recant?
Recant is a word associated with the Dark Ages and witch hunts. Those accused of heresy were forced to recant their heretical beliefs to avoid burning at the stake. Even then, recantations were never taken as a belated statement of the truth but, rather, as a means to escape an even more horrible fate.

Sinking fast
Antonion C. Abaya
Unless the law of gravity has been revised, repealed or rewritten by the Lakas-Kampi-NPC juggernaut in the Lower House, President Arroyo is sinking fast into oblivion.