By ROWENA JOY A. SANCHEZ
MANILA, Philippines � Members of the Philippine Azkals accused of committing rape have all taken the �no comment� stance in the face of recent revelations made by their purported victim, model Amanda Coling.
�I have no comment on anything. All of that is nonsense to me right now. I don�t even care for it. I don�t listen to anything that comes out of her mouth,� said Anton del Rosario in an interview aired on �The Buzz,� July 31.
The team�s goalkeeper, Neil Etheridge, gave a curt �no comment� when queried about the issue.
�I just want to talk about the game. I�ve no comment on that. We�re obviously disappointed right now. We don�t need to talk about that,� a quite annoyed Simon Greatwich said, referring to the Azkals� loss to Kuwait�s Al-Azraq during their July 29 game for the second round of the World Cup qualifiers.
In Coling�s interview with �The Buzz� last July 24, she claimed to have been acquainted with Greatwich and Etheridge since 2009, and even went as far as saying, �Mag-close friends ata sila eh, so parang si Neil, nag-give way na lang to Simon� parang nagdidiska-diskarte, parang ganun.�
As for del Rosario and their other teammate Jason Sabio, Coling said she had only met them on June 2 this year, the date of the alleged rape incident.
And while she has used several �no comment� responses in other previous interviews, Coling�s legal counsel Apollo Sangalang answered on her behalf �may nangyari,� when host Boy Abunda about the relevance of the date June 2.
Despite Coling�s latest claims, the Azkals has no plans of getting back at her.
�She hasn�t done anything, so� what�s there to do anything about? We�re just happy we got our game over with,� said del Rosario in the same July 31 interview on �The Buzz.�
Another one of their teammates, James Younghusband, maintained that the Azkals has remained focused on their matches despite the furor that the whole sex violence controversy has generated.
�We�re okay when we went away, which I think was good for the team, [to] get away from Manila, go to Bahrain and Kuwait when that thing was brought up. I think the players carried it well and were very professional by the whole thing,� said Younghusband.
Rob Gier, meanwhile, brushed off the whole brouhaha as �gossip.�
�People talk about this kind of stuff all the time� When people are popular, this kind of stuff happens. We don�t lose sleep over it, we don�t waste our breaths talking about it,� said he.
Although Coling hasn't sought legal action�saying she simply wants to live life peacefully�Abunda related during the post-report live discussion on �The Buzz� that her camp has gotten in touch with a women�s rights group.
�I got a text message, I think from Atty. Apollo, the lawyer of Amanda Coling, na puwede nang sabihin na sila�y nakikipag-ugnayan� sa Gabriela. I got this text message kahapon. Because I was not allowed to mention this in my interview last week. Kung anuman ang kanilang pinag-usapan, hindi po natin alam�� said the TV host.
Manila Bulletin
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