MANILA, 27 October 2007 — The mother of a former Filipino entertainer has President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to help investigate the real cause of her daughter’s death inside the US military base in Okinawa, Japan.
Speaking in Kapampangan, Myrna Guzman said in a press conference yesterday that her 20-year old daughter, Cherrie Ann Vergara Coleman, died under mysterious circumstances and would like to seek redress against Cherrie Ann’s American husband, Sgt. Glenn Coleman, stationed at the US Military Base in Okinawa.
Guzman said she would like the body of her daughter exhumed for autopsy to determine the cause of her death, which Coleman reportedly claimed to be suicide.
The certification of death signed by the US Navy Medical Examiner specified the word “pending” under the “condition leading to death.” The US Department of Air Force specified in its shipment request that the cause of death was “hanging.”
The mother said her second of nine children went to Japan last year to work as an entertainer. After her six-month contract, Cherrie Ann returned home. Her would-be husband, 28-year old Coleman, pursued her in Pampanga and showed his interest in marrying her. Cherrie Ann followed Coleman in Japan and they got married there in May 2007. On Oct. 5, Cherrie Ann died.
“Cherrie Ann is a good daughter,” said Guzman, noting that her daughter worked hard to send her third sister money for her to process her papers and follow Cherrie Ann to Japan. The mother thought that Cherrie Ann was happy with her marriage although her friends said that she and husband of five months always fight.
Cherrie Ann would not tell her friends but her bruises during those fights reveal a different story, she said.
Guzman said that she and others who inspected the body of her daughter when it was brought to Pampanga last week noticed black and blue bruises on the breasts, buttocks and knees, scratches on the chin, and a deep wound under her neck. She said Coleman refused to talk to her.
Rosemarie Trajano, executive director of Kanlungan Center Foundation, Inc. said that Cherrie Ann’s death reminds her of Chris Sioson, another Filipino entertainer in Japan who also died violently several years ago.
Cherrie Ann’s mother sought the help of Kanlungan and other groups to help her file criminal and civil cases against the US serviceman, whose whereabouts are not known to date.
According to the Okinawan Women Act Against Military Violence, police records show that US military personnel raped 200 Okinawan women between 1972 and 1997. The number is said to be higher as some cases are not reported.
Also, the brutal rape of a 12-year old girl in September 1995 by a US military serviceman sparked off protests in Japan. The girl was on her way home when the three military men abducted and beat her, bound her with a duct tape, and finally, gang-raped her.
