Commentary
Injustice Amid Subservience
The chances that justice
will come for the 22-year-old Filipina who has accused six US soldiers of
raping her last November 1 inside the former US base in Subic, Olongapo
City is no better than previous cases of rape and even homicide that were
lodged against members of the US military during the heyday of the US
bases in the country.
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo
BusinessWorld
Posted by Bulatlat
The chances that
justice will come for the 22-year-old Filipina who has accused six US
soldiers of raping her last November 1 inside the former US base in Subic,
Olongapo City is no better than previous cases of rape and even homicide
that were lodged against members of the US military during the heyday of
the US bases in the country.
During that time, poor
Filipinos scavenging for scrap material inside the fenced-off base area
were shot at like wild pigs, apparently not so much for security reasons
but as target practice for bored soldiers manning security outposts. No
cases of rape or manslaughter have ever been successfully pursued till the
perpetrators get their just desserts because of the sheer lopsided status
of the Filipino victims versus their American tormentors.
Thus the Philippines
has the dubious distinction of having a long history of US soldiers guilty
of grievous, if not heinous, crimes getting away scot-free, completely
beyond the reach of Philippine judicial processes.
Were the laws of the
land paramount, the six suspects would be in jail by now or at least
preliminary investigation could be accelerated to ensure that they do not
go into hiding or skip town.
The Filipino public is
especially quick to be roused to sympathize with a rape victim, despite
the still pervasive macho culture, because of the feudal and Roman
Catholic value given to a woman's chastity, especially that of a young
woman.
Sometimes, when the
victim is clearly disadvantaged by socio-economic status, there can even
be a backlash against the perpetrators if they happen to be scions of rich
families who are perceived to be abusing their privileged positions in
society to get away with their crimes and misdemeanors.
But this is not an
ordinary criminal case involving another Filipino whereby Philippine
jurisdiction over the case would be undisputed. What has immediately been
invoked both by US and Philippine authorities is the Visiting Forces
Agreement (VFA) that, despite merely being considered an "executive
agreement" by the US government, appears to supersede the national laws of
this land, including the Revised Penal Code that covers heinous crimes
such as gang rape.
As opponents of the
VFA had argued all the way to the Supreme Court, the VFA institutionalized
a set-up that no self-respecting independent nation would have accepted.
Concretely, under the
VFA , US soldiers who are suspects in the commission, even of heinous
crimes, are not automatically under the exclusive jurisdiction of the
Philippine government.
Art. V, paragraphs 3
(a) and 3 (b) state that U.S.
military authorities have exclusive jurisdiction over offenses punishable
under Philippine law as long as these are also punishable under the
"criminal and disciplinary jurisdiction" conferred upon U.S. authorities
by military law, (underscoring
ours) and of offenses arising out of performance of official duty.
We aver that indeed,
this is the provision that is used to assert US jurisdiction in this case
since by no stretch of the imagination can rape be considered an offense
"arising out of performance of official duty".
Of course, the US
government could accede to an assertion by the Philippine government of
jurisdiction over the rape case because if its "particular importance to
the Philippines" but as of press time, we have not heard of any such
position taken by the Arroyo administration. Malacañang has so far been
meekly accepting US custody and jurisdiction.
Furthermore, contrary to the pronouncements of the Department of Justice
that the Philippines will get custody of the six accused US soldiers when
arrest warrants have been issued, the VFA stipulates otherwise. Thus it is
the US government's position that "until proven guilty" the accused will
remain in US custody and will only "be made available" to local judicial
proceedings.
The latest admission
by the Presidential Commission on the RP-US VFA is that the Philippine
government is helpless should the US government choose to bring the six
accused out of the Philippines since the VFA has "no qualification" as to
where exactly an accused can be held.
Nonetheless, the VFA
is not the ultimate culprit. Even without invoking the VFA, US and
Philippine authorities have collaborated to whisk away beyond the reach of
Philippine law no less than a suspected terrorist bomber who left a trail
of circumstantial evidence that he was or had been a CIA agent.
This was in 2002, in
Evergreen Hotel in Davao City, when a certain
Michael Meiring, a South African-born American citizen and self-proclaimed
treasure hunter, caused injury to himself and damage to hotel property
when he accidentally detonated a bomb he had been assembling.
Despite
severe injury to his two legs and arrest warrants for illegal possession
of firearm and ammunition issued by local authorities, Meiring was able to
elude arrest.
From the
Davao hospital, Meiring vanished and eventually managed to leave the
Philippines apparently with the help of officials from the
United States
embassy which, of course, issued a denial of any involvement in Meiring's
departure. It stands to reason that other government officials at the
national level also facilitated the escape of the suspected terrorist.
Now the Arroyo
government has the gall to argue that the absence of an Anti-Terrorism
Bill (ATB) is the reason terrorists, local and foreign, get away with
impunity. Meanwhile people are being killed, maimed and harassed in the
name of "upholding the rule of law" and counterterrorism.
Indeed Malacañang and
its supporters have argued ad nauseum that the "calibrated
preemptive response" or CPR, the ATB, and all the armamentarium of a
so-called "strong republic" are needed to safeguard ordinary citizens'
rights and lives from destabilizers and terrorists.
Our tart response:
Tell that to the marines. This government must first prove itself capable
of protecting its own citizens against the depredations of foreign
criminal elements not to mention asserting the country's sovereignty and
dignity against the almighty United States of America.
Posted by Bulatlat
(This article was
published by BusinessWorld in its November 11-12, 2005 issue.)
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