House OKs resolution seeking custody of US Marines Maila Ager INQ7.net
November 14, 2006
A RESOLUTION urging President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to assert Philippine jurisdiction over four US Marines accused of raping a Filipina has been approved in the House of Representatives.
The resolution, signed by Speaker Jose de Venecia and will be submitted to the President anytime this week, came barely 15 days before a lower court that tried the case hands down a decision.
For Gabriela Women's Partylist Representative Liza Maza, the resolution was a “moral suasion.”
“That’s the value of this resolution,” Maza said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
Maza filed the resolution on November 9 but the House committee on women consolidated it with other similar measures.
The consolidated resolution, or House Resolution 171, urged President Arroyo to “uphold the dignity of Filipino women by asserting Philippine jurisdiction and custody of the suspects in the alleged Subic rape of a 22-year-old female student at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.”
It noted that the “suspected rapists remain in the custody of the US embassy in Manila and such situation may hamper the prosecution of the case that could be filed against them.”
The resolution pointed out that Section 1 (a) of Article V on Criminal Jurisdiction of the US-RP Agreement provides that Philippine authorities should have jurisdiction over US personnel accused of violating Philippine laws.
The woman has testified that Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, of St. Louis, raped her November 1 in a moving van while Staff Sergeant Chad Carpentier, Lance Corporal Keith Silkwood and Lance Corporal Dominic Duplantis allegedly cheered him on. If convicted, all four face a maximum of 40 years in jail.
