A lawyer yesterday said she would file criminal complaints against key presidential aides and urged lawmakers to seek the president's impeachment for allowing the transfer of a US Marine convicted of raping a Filipino woman from a local jail to US custody.
The government's decision to move Lance Corporal Daniel Smith to the US embassy on Friday while he appeals his conviction and a 40-year jail sentence helped diffuse tensions with the US, but it could backfire on President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Evalyn Ursua, the lawyer for the 23-year-old woman who accused Smith of raping her after a night of drinking on Nov. 1, 2005, said the transfer of Smith to US custody after a month in a local jail violated an order of the Court of Appeals and a suburban Manila court.
She said the appeals court had already ordered him to be held in a Manila jail while it hears his petition for transfer, which was filed by his lawyers, the Philippine government and the US embassy.
The petitioners argued that his detention violates the 1998 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), which governs the conduct of US troops in the Philippines. A provision in it states that any accused US serviceman shall remain in US custody until all judicial proceedings are exhausted.
But Judge Benjamin Pozon, who convicted Smith on Dec. 4, argued that he should remain at the Makati city jail because the provision in the bilateral accord did not apply after a conviction.
"The president is merely complying with international obligations," Interior Undersecretary Marius Corpus said on Friday after Smith was transferred.
But Ursua said Smith's transfer violated Philippine law.
"You know we all have differing interpretations of the VFA, but in our legal system, in our rule of law, our courts have the final say and under our law, each prisoner is under the jurisdiction of the court," Ursua said.
She said she planned to file criminal cases and a petition for contempt before the Court of Appeals against a list of public officials today, including the secretaries of the interior and justice ministries, the presidential legal counsel and a Cabinet member.
Some left-wing lawmakers said they may seek to impeach Arroyo.
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