Pinay determined to press rape charge vs US Army man in Okinawa

MANILA, Philippines - The Filipina who had complained of having been raped in a hotel in Japan reiterated her intent to file charges against the US serviceman who forced her into having sex last month.

The father of ‘Hazel’ (the alias the victim’s father gave his eldest daughter) told GMA News correspondent Lei Alviz that his daughter is determined to push with the case despite being traumatized by the incident.

“Nagpapasalamat nga ako eh malakas ang loob niya ngayon (I’m grateful she now has the courage)," he said.

The 21-year-old first-time overseas Filipino worker (OFW) was said to have been raped just two days after departing from Manila to Okinawa on February 15.

GMA News quoted Japanese police saying that Hazel was confined in a hospital for a week after the incident.

Worried nurses and doctors attending to the Filipina reported the incident to police officials after the victim bled profusely following the incident, according to the report.

Japanese authorities also told GMA News that the US serviceman claimed that Hazel consented to the sexual intercourse. The American is still in the custody of the US army in Japan.

“Ipaglalaban niya talaga 'yung ginawa sa kanya (my daughter will really fight for what happened to her)," Hazel’s father said.

The Filipina is currently sheltered in a center for abused women in Japan.

Hazel’s father, through the assistance of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Philippine consulate officials, personally visited his daughter in Japan. He said that the family has been very worried over the plight of his daughter in Okinawa.

The southern Japanese prefecture is home to about 20,000 US soldiers and has since been in hot water for previous rape scandals including that of a 14-year-old Japanese school girl who was forced to have sex with 38-year-old Marine staff sergeant Tyrone Luther Hadnott in a parked car.

Charges were never pressed as the girl and her family refused to be involved in the case.

In an answer to the growing hostility against the American servicemen, the US Army restricted the movement of the soldiers by imposing a curfew on all military personnel, including civilian employees, as part of a two-week ''period of reflection,'' to enforce discipline core values among the US military.

The restrictions however have been eased on the Army’s daytime travel off bases earlier this month.

Restrictions remain on off-base activity at night for military personnel, but not for civilians. New restrictions on off-base drinking have been added for the troops, the Marines said in a statement.

The US placed Okinawa under its direct military rule shortly after World War II and confiscated Okinawan people’s land for construction of huge strategic bases in main island of the southern Japanese prefecture and nearby Iejima Island, centering on the Kadena airfield. - Mark J. Ubalde, GMANews.TV

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