The Case of Odd Albert Wilson

Of late the media have been closely following the Daniel Smith story. The most recent article I read was that in the Inquirer that proclaimed, "Smith Gone With the Wind". The article rues the American marine's immediate departure from the Philippines upon his acquittal by the Court of Appeals of having raped a Filipina whom we all know as Nicole. My reaction to his departure - good riddance and not a moment too soon. What do we expect him to do upon his release, anyway: visit the local tourist spots and sample the nightlife, maybe?

This reminds me of a case I handled when I was a new lawyer in a Makati law firm. It involved a British national who was accused of having raped the twelve year old daughter of his Filipina live-in partner. The trial court convicted him but, on appeal to the Supreme Court, the court acquitted him on the ground that the accused's conflicting and oftentimes fantastic testimonies cast doubts on the existence of any crime. While the case did not gain the widespread attention of the Smith case, it did warrant some passing mention in the British press. This was at a time when the death penalty was in effect for rape cases - the death penalty has since been abolished - and the UK government was concerned about the British public's response to the execution of one of its own in a foreign land (read: in a third world country).

The accused Albert Wilson was not the most sterling specimen of a subject that the UK could offer. Down and out and possessing a petty criminal record for theft prior to his having landed in the Philippines, he nevertheless unshakeably maintained that rape was a dastardly act to which he would never stoop. He also sincerely adored his live-in partner. They were a fit. She couldn't be said to be a Filipina beauty - fugly is how they now call it. She was devoted to him, bringing his meals to the municipal jail each day, washing his clothes, and allowing him to enjoy his fair share of conjugal visitation rights. But submissive she was not and she would fight him and threaten to leave him when he would get despondent over his incarceration and blame her for spoiling her daughter, a daughter whom he took as his own, and fed and clothed, etc, etc. at which point they would both break down and cry and hold each other. Whilst I silently cursed my boss for having assigned me to this case.

Wilson was also a lawyer's nightmare client, refusing to accept advise and perrenially overriding accepted legal theory with his own version of reality. His downtrodden demeanor masked a condescending attitude that many foreigners affect toward the locals of developing countries, an attitude that in all probability earned him the shoddy treatment he complained of at the hands of prison officials and other inmates. In a book he later published he accuses his legal counsel of a shoddy defense, forgetting that it was his counsel's own efforts at drawing out the inconsistencies and fabrications of the accused that moved the Supreme Court to overturn his conviction. I should point out that it was that same legal counsel who represented Wilson all the way to the Supreme Court. Wilson also never settled his huge legal bills which were, at the embarrassed request of British embassy officials, waived by legal counsel.

I had since left the employ of the law firm, but one day several years later Wilson's lawyers received a phone call from the national penitentiary, informing them that they had just received the Supreme Court's decision and would they be so kind to collect their client? This was at five o'clock in the afternoon and, aware that there was a BA flight to Heathrow Airport that evening, his lawyer rushed to the penitentiary and retrieved Wilson. As the party was about to proceed to the airport Wilson resisted and said that he was not leaving the country without his Filipina partner. Embassy officials went apoplectic and told him that they were having none of that, whereupon he threatened to stay on in the Philippines and they relented. For good measure, Wilson demanded that they issue a UK resident's visa or he would come back to the Philippines. Oh yes, and for her son, too. British good sense prevailed and Wilson's precious cargo of partner and son were immediately given the necessary travel documents, visas, and put on the plane that very night.

In a bizarre epilogue, I learned that a year after Wilson's release the accuser, his partner's daughter, demanded to be reconciled with her mother in the UK. Once again, Wilson threatened to return to the Philippines unless Her Majesty's government issued to said daughter the requisite permits to visit and stay in the country. And so were they united in the United Kingdom as one happy (albeit dysfunctional) family: accuser, accused and partner.