Like thieves in the night

January 11, 2007 at 2:53 pm (Opinion)

(N.B. This is Teresita Ang See’s Beats and Bytes column in Tulay, a Chinese-Filipino digest published by Kaisa Para sa Kaunlaran. The author is an awardee of The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service [TOWNS], one of the many organizations helping Nicole.)

Faust sold his soul to the devil for short-term personal gain. The Philippine government seems close to doing the same.By agreeing to give the United States custody of convicted rapist, Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith, the Philippine government has practically sold out the country’s sovereignty. The convoluted logic given by Malacañang spokespeople: The move is better than a pardon for Smith, and it will ensure continuation of the joint military exercises. Excuse me? These statements raise two sore points.

Firstly, pardon is not, and should never be, an option. It should not even have been mentioned. A pardon would make a mockery of our judicial system. Pursuit of justice and due process become a cruel joke when political interests can easily subvert results unsatisfactory to those with influence.

The second point indicates that foreign military interests are so important that it is OK to bump national sovereignty and justice onto the back seat. Karangalan and katarungan, twin ideals for the nation, have just been decimated.

Sad.

The Chinese have a saying “Qiong guo wu wai jiao (A poor country does not have foreign relations).” A poor country cannot demand equality and parity in foreign relations. Our government has just proved how true this is. Under duress from the U.S. Embassy, we sold out.

Like thieves in the night, police operatives sent by the Department of Interior and Local Government spirited Smith out of the Makati City Jail into the waiting arms of the embassy staff last Dec. 29. This covert act was done by virtue of a clandestine executive agreement between U.S. Ambassador Christine Kenney and Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo. It was done at the very last hour of the last working day of 2006, an assurance that the camp of rape victim “Nicole” could do nothing to prevent it.

Malacañang’s move skirted Makati Judge Benjamin Pozon’s order that Smith’s custody should be with the Philippines. It likewise contravened the Court of Appeals’ decision that while the case was under review, Pozon’s decision should be respected. Finally, the appellate court upheld the conviction but rendered the custody issue moot and academic because Smith had already been transferred to the U.S. Embassy.

Instead of caving in, the Philippine government ought to have thanked the Americans when they decided at first to cancel the scheduled Balikatan exercises. It ought to have seized the opportunity and cited Nicole’s experience to tell the U.S. government to exercise prudence and keep their military men out of any country, not just the Philippines, until it can assure other countries that their citizens will not be abused, raped, massacred and degraded by rampaging soldiers.

But no, Malacañang buckled under the weight of threats coming from Uncle Sam. And bully the Americans can. Initially, Ambassador Kenney warned that U.S. mercy medical and relief missions to typhoon victims might suffer if the Philippines does not hand Smith over. Stunned by the backlash of such blatant bullying—that withholding aid would be much like snatching candy away from a crying child—she later backed down.

So it was onto the next threat: To cancel the military exercises. This time, the strategy worked. The Philippine government’s response sold out our dignity as a nation. It has allowed a foreign government to interfere in our internal affairs and subvert our own judicial system.

I do not subscribe to the saying that a poor country does not have foreign relations. We can still hold our heads up high in the community of nations if we keep our dignity and refuse to bow to a foreign power.

I cannot believe that our government officials would ever buy the line that our relations with the U.S. would suffer from the issue over custody of a mere corporal. But it did and I believe that what the President and her officials fear is the loss of U.S. support which she needs for her political survival. In much the same way that the U.S. continued to prop up the Marcos dictatorial regime to the very end, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her minions seriously feel that they cannot sacrifice that political backing over the custody of a lowly U.S. marine. But clearly, they too miscalculated the consequence of that move.

The Palace rah-rah boys are one in saying that the President had nothing to do with the decision. But they also admit that Cabinet cluster on national security (Cluster E) made the decision. Palace officials are adding insult to injury by trying to pull our collective leg. How can a Cabinet cluster’s decision be concealed from the President?

Come on!

They could not even get their acts and pronouncements together. National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales had already announced that the custody issue would not affect RP-U.S. relations. Then Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and spokesman Ignacio Bunye justified the custody change because, they said, the government does not want such issues to affect relations.

Even more tragic are the female bystanders swooning over Smith and professing their belief in his innocence. It is sickening that these women can ignore the suffering and abuse of one of their own just because the criminal is a young, handsome, white American boy. I wonder what they would feel if the African-American marine were convicted instead.

Before we at TOWNS (The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service) decided to help Nicole, we did our own fact finding and talked to Nicole and her family and some witnesses. We are fully convinced that Nicole was raped and that all she wanted was justice, not to get money out of the Americans. But many people, including Fr. James Reuter, did not bother to know the case and the family, and even dared pass uninformed judgment on Nicole.

If anything good at all is to come out of this tragedy, it is the review of the Visiting Forces Agreement. Filipino negotiators must clarify all the gray areas that have worked against Filipino interests.

We have to thank Nicole’s courage in facing the yearlong trial and her persistence despite her lack of resources and the mental duress in every trial.

We thank also the other women who stood steadfastly by her, especially her counsel Evalyn Ursua who bore the heaviest burden in Nicole’s defense.

No matter the final outcome of this case, we have won our victory in this battle. Like Faust’s story, it is human persistence and caring that win the day