Charges dropped vs US soldier who raped Pinay

MANILA, Philippines - The charges against the US Army serviceman who allegedly forced sexual intercourse with a Filipino woman last February have been dropped due to lack of evidence. Reports claimed that an official from the Naha district prosecutor's office said there was no sufficient evidence to pin down the US soldier for the rape charge. The 21-year-old overseas Filipino worker (OFW) told GMANews last February that she was determined to press charges against the soldier. “Hazel"(the alias the victim’s father gave his eldest daughter) apparently went out with the American soldier before the sexual assault happened. Japanese police reports said that the Filipina was invited to eat out by a 20-something US serviceman at around 2 a.m. of February 18, the day the alleged rape incident took place in a hotel. “Only when my daughter went to the comfort room did she feel that her pants were soaked in blood," the victim’s father told GMA News in Filipino. The report said that worried members of the hotel staff took her to the hospital when they saw her bleeding profusely. GMA News quoted Japanese police as saying that Hazel was confined in a hospital for a week after the incident. Hazel positively identified the suspect in a police line up, the report added, citing police accounts. The US serviceman has denied the allegations and maintained that the Filipina consented to have sex with him. Just days before the incident, a US soldier was accused of raping a 14-year-old girl in Okinawa. 38-year-old Marine staff sergeant Tyrone Luther Hadnott was arrested last February for allegedly raping a Japanese schoolgirl. The rape charge against Hadnott had been released after the victim's family dropped charges. Filipino and Japanese militants protested the alleged rape incidents in the Japanese prefecture and called for the withdrawal of troops there. 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. 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. -Mark Joseph Ubalde, GMANews.TV