News Analysis: Calls for Phl-US VFA abrogation mount

MANILA (Xinhua) - Calls for abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the Philippines and the United States have mounted after the United States insisted on retaining custody over an American serviceman charged with murder in a Philippine court.

In the Philippine Senate, the call for the scrapping of the VFA was led by Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, chairman of the Senate committee on foreign relations.

Santiago also said that the US serviceman should be turned over to Philippine authorities and detained in a local facility.

Senate President Franklin Drilon, a close ally of President Benigno Aquino III, also urged Malacanang, the seat of the Philippine government, to initiate a review of the VFA, saying that the US interpretation on detention and custody of American soldiers facing criminal charges in the Philippines is "too technical."

In October, Santiago and Representative Walden Bello filed a joint resolution seeking to terminate the VFA.

The VFA, signed in February l998, allows the temporary stay of American forces in the Philippines during joint military exercises.

The resolution said that the Senate and the House of Representatives should terminate the VFA because of "the noncompliance of visiting US military personnel with Philippine criminal and environmental laws, the Constitution, and international norms and customs on the protection and preservation of the environment."

Bello noted that the VFA had been used by the US military as a license to "act in wanton disregard for Philippine sovereignty" and that a "weakness" in bilateral ties had been exploited by the United States.

He said that instead of owning up to their mistakes, paying reparations to the Filipino people, and ensuring justice for victims of heinous crimes committed by their own personnel, the American authorities repeatedly resorted to the VFA to evade accountability.

Calls for the scrapping of the VFA followed the killing of Jeffrey "Jennifer" Laude, a Filipino transgender, allegedly by Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton of the US Marine Corps in a motel in Olongapo City, some 130 km north of Manila, on the night of Oct. 11.

The l9-year-old Pemberton appeared Friday before an Olongapo City trial court where he underwent the mandatory fingerprinting and had his mug shots taken.

Pemberton's lawyers had sought to downgrade the murder charge against him to homicide. Under Philippine laws, homicide is punishable with a maximum prison term of 20 years, compared to 40 years for murder.

After his appearance in the Olongapo City court, Pemberton was whisked back to his air-conditioned detention facility within the Armed Forces of the Philippines headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo in suburban Quezon City. The premises of his detention cell are being guarded by US military personnel.

Philippine officials have called for the transfer of Pemberton to a regular prison facility just like other individuals charged with murder.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said that the Philippine government would continue to fight for custody of Pemberton and that he should be detained in a regular prison facility.

But on Wednesday, the US embassy in Manila told the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) that the United States was retaining custody of Pemberton as provided for in the VFA.

"We are doing it for certain reasons, for certain legal reasons that we have with US servicemen involved and we have the VFA that allows us to do it," US Ambassador Philip Goldberg said in an interview with a local TV network.

The DFA supported the US position, saying that it was within the right of the United States to retain custody of Pemberton while the murder case filed against him is still being tried by the court.

Under the VFA, while the Philippines has jurisdiction over criminal complaints filed against American servicemen, the United States could retain custody over the accused while there is still no final conviction.

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) also renewed its call for the abrogation of the VFA. It condemned the US government and the Philippine military for rejecting calls for the government to have custody of the US serviceman.

"That the VFA has again prevented the Philippine government from exercising full jurisdiction over a criminal case involving a US serviceman demonstrates once more that it is an overwhelmingly lopsided agreement favoring the US military and is violative of Philippine sovereignty," the CPP said in a statement.

The Pemberton case is the second major test of the VFA. In 2006, US Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith was charged with raping a Filipino woman also in Olongapo City.

During his trial, Smith was only briefly detained by Philippine authorities, but was later surreptitiously handed over to the US embassy where he was in custody until his case was decided by the court.

Smith was sentenced to 40 years in jail after being found guilty of rape. However, he walked free in 2009 after his accuser recanted her statement, prompting the Philippine Court of Appeals to acquit him.