Press Release
February 13, 2009

Don't sit on SC order on US convict, says Loren

Senator Loren Legardaurged today the executive department to immediately move so that it may at the soonestsecure custody of an American soldier convicted of raping a Filipina following a Supreme Court ruling that his incarceration at the US Embassy in Manila is illegal.

"While the SC gave no deadline on the convict's transfer to a Philippine-run facility, our government must not sit on this issue because justice has to be served and our laws observed to the letter," said Legarda.

She noted though that the option to ask the SC to reconsider its decision remains open to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the US Embassy.

Voting 9-4, the High Court declared as inconsistent with the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) the deal forged in 2006 by the DFA and the US Embassy transferring Smith from the Makati City Jail to a holding cell inside the US Embassy.

"Smith's stay at the US Embassy is being seen as a special treatment accorded him because he is an American citizen. Rightly or wrongly, that perception can be corrected by transferring him to a local jail," Legarda stressed.

As the crime of rape was committed in the Philippines, the supremacy of Philippine laws must be upheld, she said.

"I expect the United States to respect the SC decision because it is based on a legal tenet which our own justice system adopted from the American legal framework."

Legarda said the US and all other sovereign states, for that matter, have the right to pass laws and enforce them within their territorial boundaries.

"This is the reason why the Philippine government can only plead the cases of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in trouble abroad. We have to work within the legal system of each concerned country," she pointed out.

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