The Infamous “Nicole”
Thursday, January 4th, 2007OK, ok, the following post will probably be controversial to some people, but I expect that some others will agree with me. Let me start off by posting this editorial by Ramon Tulfo on the Inquirer over the public uproar on Corporal Smith’s transfer to US custody.
ON TARGET
Arroyo did the right thing on custody issue
Published on Page A18 of the January 4, 2007 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
IF YOUR best friend and long-time ally comes knocking at your door to ask for a favor, will you refuse him if you have the power to grant his request?
That’s what President Macapagal-Arroyo did with Uncle Sam’s request for US Marines Lance Cpl. Smith to be turned over to the US Embassy while his conviction is being appealed.
Arroyo used the power of the executive branch of government to transfer custody of Smith to the US Embassy from our correctional system.
Our correctional system, specifically the Bureau of Corrections that would have taken custody of Smith, is under the system.
The secretary of justice, in turn, is a member of the President’s Cabinet. And so is the secretary of the interior, who got the convicted American out of the Makati City Jail.
According to my lawyer-friend, Vicente Chuidian, all prisoners—whether detainees awaiting conviction or who have been convicted—may be housed anywhere at the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the Chief Executive to whom the secretaries of justice and interior report.
Chuidian said it is the courts that decide whether or not a person should go to jail. But where that person should be jailed is the prerogative of the executive department.
“Is it not a fact that the President can even grant amnesty or pardon?” said Chuidian, an expert trial lawyer.
Forget about the President’s faults or her legitimacy in office. When she made that controversial decision she had the national interest in mind.
Let’s be realistic and practical: We need the Americans more than they need us.
The United States has been giving us more favors than we can return. The United States has been helping us fight the Abu Sayyaf which is backed by the international terrorist group al-Qaida. Abu Sayyaf leaders have been captured or killed one after the other through millions of dollars in reward money put up by the American government. Elite US troops go with Filipino soldiers in hunting down the Abu Sayyaf, although officially both governments won’t admit it.
Our military’s modernization program hinges on US aid. Our internal and external security depends to a great extent on the Americans.
The favor of taking custody over Smith is small compared to the favors we have been receiving from the Americans.
The favor the US government was asking is in consonance with the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), a treaty, which provides that American servicemen being tried in Philippine courts shall remain in US custody during the judicial proceedings.
The bone of contention is whether “judicial proceedings” ends with Smith’s conviction or after the appeal of his conviction is decided by the appellate court.
Anyway, Smith is not scotfree; he’s confined in a room at the US Embassy that has been converted into a jail. He is guarded. The only difference is that he’s a prisoner on US soil and not in a Philippine prison.
* * *
Ask people who have followed the much-publicized rape case from start to finish, most of them will tell you “Nicole” was never raped.
How could there have been a rape when she willingly took off her tight-fitting jeans? If she was forced into involuntary sex, her pants would have been torn off. There was no way her supposed rapist could have taken off her pants in the cramped space of a moving van without her help. And why did the “rapist” have to wear a condom?
She claims she was too drunk at that time for her to have agreed to have sex with the American. But so was Smith, who is younger than Nicole.
*****
I don’t even want to discuss whether or not I believe "Nicole" was raped. But all this talk of the president "betraying the country" or giving in like a lap dog to its master by allowing Smith to be given over to the Americans is so impractical and short-sighted. I commend GMA for being able to make these difficult, unpopular decisions. Thank heavens there are other level-headed fellows who agree.
