The US government has already hired two Filipino lawyers and is planning to hire more to defend the six US marines accused of raping a 22-year-old Filipino woman, a government official said on Thursday.

Undersecetary Zosimo Paredes, Executive Director of the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFACOM), said there are already two Filipino lawyers who will represent the suspects.

"They (the lawyers) were presented to me in a conference at the US embassy. They were given 10 days to answer the summon by the Department of Justice," said Paredes.

He said the US authorities plan to hire at least one lawyer for each suspect.

He said when he met with the US marines, who are now under the custody of US embassy in Manila, the latter assured him that they would appear in court proceedings.

There was no indication to transfer them to another facility except in the Philippines," he said.

Meanwhile, the US embassy in Manila denied reports that US officials have requested the transfer of the US marines to their base in Okinawa, Japan.

"We have made no such request. We plan to have the marines available to the investigators as the Visiting Forces Agreement requires," said US embassy spokesman Matthew Lussenhop.

Preliminary investigation is set on Nov. 23 and 29 in Olongapo City in Subic Bay, where the rape allegedly took place on Nov. 1.

This is the first time a rape involving US troops allegedly took place since the Visiting Forces Agreement was signed in 1998 and came into force in 1999.

The agreement allows US troops to visit the Philippines at a regular basis after the US closed their military bases in the Philippines in the early 1990s.

According to local officials and media reports, the woman was reportedly from Zamboanga City in southern Philippines visiting her step-sister in Subic Bay when she was allegedly raped by the marines in a van.

The US marines had just participated in a large-scale joint military exercise with their Filipino counterparts in the former US navy base some 80 kilometers northwest of Manila.

Source: Xinhua