ARROYO GOVT TOLD TO STOP MAKING ERAP
A SCAPEGOAT FOR THE MESS OVER SMITH CASE

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Nene Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should stop blaming former President Joseph Estrada for the troubles hounding her administration caused by its mishandling of the case of American Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith after his conviction for raping a 22-year old Filipina.

Pimentel reminded the President and her key advisers that the controversy over the Smith affair is of their own making since they ordered the transfer of the American serviceman from the Makati City Jail to the United Embassy without waiting for a ruling of the Court of Appeals on the governments motion questioning the decision of Regional Trial Court Judge Benjamin Pozon rejecting Smiths transfer.

He also said that he voted against the ratification of the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement in 1999 in view of the flaws in its provisions related to jurisdiction of Philippine courts over criminal offenses committed by American servicemen who enter the country for joint military exercises.

Pimentel assailed the President and her officials for succumbing to US pressure to release Smith from prison in blatant disregard for the countrys judicial process and at the expense of the national sovereignty.

I voted against the VFA but to blame the ex-President for GMAs surrender is like blaming him for the corruption and the extra-judicial killings that are happening under her administration. GMA is the one on the hot seat. Nobody is to blame but her, he said.

Pimentel expressed dismay over the propensity of the Arroyo administration to make other people as scapegoats for its problems and the sufferings that are inflicted upon the Filipino people.