MANILA: "Nicole, a Filipino woman who accused a US Marine of rape has altered her testimony and emigrated to the United States, saying she was no longer certain that a crime took place, a lawyer said yesterday.

The case has strained US-Philippine military relations amid calls for the scrapping of a pact allowing US troops to train Filipino soldiers, and has become a rallying point for anti-American protests. Three years after Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith was convicted of rape and sentenced to 40 years in jail, his accuser submitted a five-page affidavit to an appeals court Tuesday saying she now doubts her own version of events. "My conscience continues to bother me realizing that I may have in fact been so friendly and intimate with Daniel Smith ... that he was led to believe that I was amenable to having sex or that we simply just got carried away," the woman said in the statement.

The turnabout has shocked her supporters, including lawyer Evalyn Ursua, who said her client terminated her services this week then moved to the US to start a new life and was no longer willing to talk.

"She decided that it's time to move on," Nicole's mother told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Tuesday over the phone.

"It's been so difficult for us. We've been suffering for so long — for three years now — and the attention of the media continues. Our lives haven't moved. And we're so tired." The mother refused to say where exactly Nicole, now 24, went, although lawyer Ursua told reporters her former client had flown to the United States "for good."

At the launching of the "Junk VFA Movement" earlier Tuesday, Ursua said Nicole had terminated her services and quoted her former client's mother as saying Nicole decided to leave because she had become "tired of the case and do not want anymore to be bothered by it because 'there is no justice in the Philippines.'"

All Nicole's mother would say was that she saw her daughter off sometime this month at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to board a flight "to another country," and that Nicole traveled alone.

"She was happy. It's like she's not coming back," said the mother, whose three other children are also working overseas.

The mother said Nicole left to be with an American man she had met in her native Zamboanga City through family friends.

During the trial, Nicole had admitted in open court being in a relationship with Okinawa-based US Marine Brian Goodrich at the time of the November 2005 rape, and that they broke up soon after.

"We hope the public will understand this decision," the mother said. "We hope our wish will be respected. We want a new life, to live peacefully."

Asked if the family had any discussion with Smith's lawyer or US Embassy officials, the mother said: "We are just exhausted."

As to about Smith's pending appeal and his continued detention at the US Embassy, which Nicole had fought for years, the mother said: "We are no longer interested."

Ursua said Nicole's mother gave her a letter signed by her client informing her that her services were no longer needed and that she wanted "all other cases arising from or related" to the rape case dropped.

Ursua said she tried to call Nicole but could not contact her.

"While I have ceased to be Nicole's lawyer, I, as a citizen who loves this country, remain committed to the cause of obtaining justice in Nicole's case and putting an end to the iniquitous Visiting Forces Agreement," said Ursua.

At a press conference, Senator Ana Consuelo Madrigal said that "perhaps there was a deal [that was] too good to refuse," reacting to "Nicole's" decision to terminate her lawyer's services.

Meantime, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said the affidavit may not be admitted as new evidence because it should have been introduced during the 2006 trial.

"I am not happy with her because her accusations divided the nation, then she turns her back on everything," he said.

Smith, 23, from St. Louis, Missouri, has been detained at the US Embassy while his case is on appeal. Last month, the Philippine Supreme Court ruled he should be serving his sentence in a Philippine jail but left it to the government to negotiate his transfer with Washington. Smith is appealing his conviction.