US can’t resist arrest order vs American Marines--senator

By Veronica Uy, INQ7.net

UNDER a bilateral accord, the United States cannot resist the arrest warrants issued Friday against four US soldiers charged in the Subic rape case, Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan said Friday.

At the same time, Pangilinan accused the US government of building a “protective wall” for the soldiers by refusing to hand them over to the Philippines.

The four Marines -- charged with raping a vacationing Filipino woman in a former American naval base in Subic on All Saints’ Day -- have been in the US embassy custody since November 2.

The American embassy in Manila had invoked the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) in refusing to hand over Lance Corporals Daniel Smith, Keith Silkwood, Dominic Duplantis, and Staff Sergeant Chad Carpentier.

Pangilinan said that resisting a validly issued arrest order “is to effectively disregard the Philippine court’s jurisdiction which the US government bound itself to recognize and abide by with the provisions of the VFA.”

He cited Article II of the VFA, which states: “It is the duty of the US personnel to respect laws of the Republic of the Philippines and to abstain from any activity inconsistent with the agreement.”

US embassy spokesman Matthew Lussenhop had refused to comment on the arrest order, saying, “I cannot speculate on what we might do because we don't have the warrant yet.”

Pangilinan also demanded that the Philippine government assert its mandate over the American Marines.

“It is imperative for the government to firmly assert its mandate and uphold the rule of law,” he said.

“The US marines have been in US custody since November 2nd of last year, and the idea that the US government has built a protective wall for these servicemen only aggravates the situation,” said Pangilinan.

Prosecutors allege that Smith raped the woman inside a van at the former US naval base about 80 kilometers northwest of Manila as his fellow Marines cheered. Smith said he only had consensual sex, but the woman’s lawyer brushed it aside, saying medical findings showed too many bruises to believe it was a sex with consent.

The US government was still considering Manila's custody request, close to two months since the Department of Foreign Affairs requested for transfer of custody on November 16.

Some Philippine lawmakers have called for the abrogation of the accord if government fails to get custody of the Marines.

The US embassy said in a statement Thursday that "the terms of the VFA allow for the accused to remain in US custody until the end of judicial proceedings."

Cebu Representative Antonio Cuenco, head of the committee on foreign affairs, said Friday that the joint congressional oversight committee on the VFA would meet before the end of the month to take a firm stand on the country's claim over the accused.

"The committee will meet to make a decisive action on the issue. We have to put an end to this," he said in a telephone interview.

Cuenco warned that "things would come to a head" if the US government would refuse to surrender the accused to the Philippine authorities despite the arrest order issued by the court.

The case has drawn widespread media attention in this former US colony, and human rights advocates say it has opened up old wounds caused by past abuses.

It is also being seen as a litmus test for the VFA, a treaty that grants limited immunity to criminal prosecution of US soldiers taking part in anti-terrorist joint exercises here. The VFA was negotiated after the 1992 closure of all permanent US military bases in the Philippines.

Rape in the Philippines is punishable by life imprisonment or death if there are aggravating circumstances. With Maila Ager, INQ7.net; The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse