Upholding Philippine sovereignty

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

02/12/2009

Congratulations are in order to the Supreme Court (SC) — for upholding Philippine sovereignty by ruling that convicted rapist Cpl. Daniel Smith should be held under Philippine custody and not under American government custody, which is what it is at present, with Smith being detained at the US Embassy.

The majority of the justices voted to have Smith placed under Philippine custodial terms, following the ruling on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). In brief both the US Ambassador and the Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo’s agreement to give the US custody of Smith while awaiting final decision of his case, is void with another agreement, adhering to the SC ruling, forged.

There were dissenting opinions, among whom came from the Chief Justice, Reynato Puno but the dissension, from reports, was mainly focused on where Smith should be detained.

The dissenters wanted Smith detained in the National Bilibid Prisons (NBP), while the majority called for DFA Secretary Romulo and US Ambassador Kristie Kenney to negotiate “the proper agreement on detention facilities under Philippine authorities.”

Pending negotiations, Smith has been allowed by the high court to remain at the US Embassy as the SC ordered that the “status quo shall be maintained.”

SC spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said the high court did not issue a deadline for the negotiations but stressed that the court wants these to take place immediately.

The SC justices who voted against Smith’s detention at the US Embassy include Associate Justices Adolfo Azcuna, Leonardo Quisumbing, Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, Renato Corona, Dante Tinga, Minita Chico-Nazario, Presbitero Velasco, Teresita De Castro and Arturo Brion.

Those with separate dissenting opinions, apart from Puno, were Associate Justices Antonio Carpio, Ma. Alicia Austria-Martinez and Conchita Carpio Morales.

While personally, it would have been preferable to have Smith detained in the NBP while awaiting the final decision, it cannot be denied that for once in a long while, the high court did uphold Philippine sovereignty, which is very important to a lot of Filipinos, because this would be taken by most Filipinos as the court having stood up against America.

Still, personal preferences, along with the pride in the Filipinos of its high court having stood up to America are hardly the real issue in this decision. The fact is that the high court has recognized that a crime was committed by a foreigner in this country and that Philippine laws, as well as the VFA conditions must be applied. The offender must therefore be placed under Philippine custody.

The way things stand today, one does not even know whether Smith is still within the Embassy grounds, or whether he is truly whiling his time away in a container.

Sure, a Philippine official comes up once in a while and claims he had checked on Smith and that everything is in order. But it is also known that not even that official can just pop in anytime at the Embassy to have a spot check. He would have to make an appointment just to do this, and that would also give the Embassy people enough time to prepare Smith and themselves for the visit.

Being detained in the NBP would be a different matter altogether. But as the majority ruling went, an agreement between the DFA and the US Embassy will have to be hammered out, which means that Smith need not be detained in the NBP, but in more comfortable quarters and under the custody of the Philippine authorities.

Smith may even placed under house arrest of sorts, as it all depends on the negotiations to be forged between the two governments.

It is expected that Kenney will be fighting for better detention facilities for Smith, while it is also expected that the Gloria regime will not be fighting to have Smith placed in the NBP, and will likely give in to America.

Quite frankly, I don’t buy our penal system, which is hardly rehabilitative but punitive. Moreover, jails in this country are really sub-human. Still, this is hardly the issue at hand.

What is important, for the moment, is that Philippine sovereignty is alive and well, in the SC.

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