Filipino woman faces U.S. Marines at rape trial

MANILA, Jun 2 (Reuters) Four US Marines, facing rape charges in the Philippines that have put the spotlight on close relations with the United States, saw their accuser in court for the first time today as the formal trial began.

The Marines, being detained by the U.S. embassy in Manila, deny the charges filed in December, saying only one of them had sex with the woman in a van and that it was consensual.

The woman sobbed when one of two prosecution witnesses -- both of them security guards at a bar in Subic, a former U.S. navy base northwest of Manila -- testified he saw one of the Marines carrying a drunk woman ''like a stick'' to a van.

''How can the victim have consensual sex if she is in thatcondition?'' Evalyn Ursua, the woman's lawyer, told reporters during a break, adding the witnesses were ''very consistent and able to relate what happened inside the bar''.

Lance Corporals Dominic Duplantis, Keith Silkwood, Daniel Smith and Staff Sergeant Chad Carpentier sat silently through the three-hour hearing. On one occassion, Smith stood up to give his name after a witness identified him.

The rape case has prompted small protests and calls by some politicians for a Visiting Forces Agreement to be amended or scrapped.

Critics say the 1998 agreement gives too much protection to US troops accused of committing crimes while on exercises with Filipino soldiers or advising them in anti-terrorism tactics against Muslim and communist rebel groups.

But analysts see little long-term damage to ties between the United States and the Philippines, a former U.S. colony.

Last week, the allies expanded their security cooperation to areas such as terrorism, piracy, disasters and outbreaks of disease.

In two previous procedural meetings, Judge Benjamin Pozon said he wanted to finish the case by August, asking the two sides to attend hearings four times a week.

The prosecution will present 40 witnesses, while the defence plans less than a dozen to testify in favour of the four Marines.

REUTERS DKS PC1654