Judge Benjamin Pozon decided "Nicole" was indeed raped by US Marine Cpl Daniel Smith (23 years old) in Subic last year.

Guilty, Smith was sentenced to 40 years in jail; he should be thankful the death penalty was repealed in this country.

On the first day, Smith was isolated in the Record section of the Makati City jail where his companions were only a chair, a ceiling fan and perhaps a few cockroaches in the night.

Good, he didn't have to spend the night in Makati City jail - jails in the Philippines being the breeding place of "war freaks" who will stick a rusty ice pick to the ribs of a newcomer, neurotics who hate white-skins and sex fiends who have not touched female flesh in years.

Women mostly have been taken by the actor-good looks of Smith and took pity on the convicted rapist because he is sweet, innocent looking and seemed incapable of inflicting harm, much less rape. They lapse into non-sequitors and rationalized he had no previous such criminal records in the past. Well, that last line of argument ensures nobody will ever be convicted because in everything, there is always a first time. And only pretty-boy faces will skip jail.

Of course, our law distinguishes not pretty boys from the Max Alvarado types - you do not commit crime by being ugly; you do when you force yourself on an unwilling victim, even if you look like an altar boy.

In progressive America, there are states which prohibit marital rape - which means no husband or even wife can force the spouse to have sex if he or she doesn't want to - because the argument is - marriage does not allow one to have complete "possession of the other." Sex is beautiful and even sacred when shared by two people in love with each other - it must take two to tango.

Our favorite line has always been: even prostitutes have a right to choose their clients, regardless of the price. Even a girl who dresses provocatively to display her assets isn't giving anyone the license to rape her. In the same way, that if you leave your house door or car open, it does NOT give others the right to rob your belongings or carnap your car.

Obviously, Smith took advantage of Nicole's drunkenness (which is not a sin by itself) by carrying her on his back to the van and then abused her at the backseat of the van in the presence of three other Americans and a Filipino driver. Meantime, medical reports showed Nicole sustained injuries on the legs, arms and genitals and the DNA of both Nicole and Smith were found in condom and panties submitted as court evidence.

It could not have been "consensual sex" (sex between caring adults) by the way Nicole was bodily carried down from the van like a pig and left at the pavement with clothes inverted and soul shamed. If there was affection, Smith should have driven the drunken Nicole back to the bar where the latter's friend was anxiously waiting and beat his curfew.

The custody of Smith would eventually be decided by the United States Embassy and his place of eventual incarceration be mutually agreed by the Philippines and American governments under the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). It may not sound too good for the blood-thirsty nationalists who want the "American pig" to suffer inhuman incarceration conditions. But that is the law. Sed lex, dura lex.

We cannot invoke the law and then transgress it to suit our own purpose. If we do, then we are no better than the American we are trying for a crime.

Lucky too, are the three Americans Cpls. Keith Silkwood and Dominic Duplantis and Staff Sgt. Carpentier who were acquitted for lack of evidence. In a true-to-life story film called "The Accused" (starring award winner Jodie Foster) we saw many years ago, the gang of men who merely cheered while Foster was raped on top of a billiards table were also sentenced (though a lighter sentence) by the American court for being "accessories to the crime."

Our resident philosopher Mang Tasyo here in the country would argue: planning a coup d'etat does not constitute a crime; executing it, does. In other words: there is no such thing as a crime in the mind, so he says. There.

If Smith were acquitted - it could have fanned ultra-nationalists to raise the bogey of the Ugly American once again and create the usual anti-imperialist rhetorics in the streets of Manila.

Nicole used to be in charge of a family canteen that serviced the needs of visiting Americans in Zamboanga during VFA military exercises in the area. She had befriended many Americans and this was the reason she felt comfortable taking a vacation in Subic where the rape happened.

She had been pilloried as a loose girl who was courting for trouble and was in for publicity or money. Money - when they had closed their canteen and spent thousands just to attend trial in faraway Manila? Money - when she had just refused overtures to settle the case out-of-court with US dollars as bait?

Publicity - when no woman would publicly admit her being raped with all its unpalatable circumstance? All she would get is P100,000 from Smith and perhaps an offer from Carlo Caparas to sell her life story to be made to film - adding insult to injury.

Nicole's brave stand is a story of how one girl stood up and demanded respect from the visitors we always lay the red carpet of hospitality for. It is a story of a nation claiming "true independence" after the end of the Military Bases Agreement - where no single American had been convicted for crimes committed against Filipinos while the former were in a tour of duty here during those years.

It is all about her honor, young Honor.