Solon scores US envoy over Jimenez case

United States Ambassador Thomas Hubbard should be declared persona non grata and be asked to leave the Philippines for allegedly interfering in the affairs of the country's highest court.

This was strongly suggested yesterday by House assistant majority leader Aniceto Saludo Jr., who said that Hubbard should be held liable for his comment on the Supreme Court's decision on the Mark Jimenez case.

The SC had allowed the controversial businessman to be given a copy of the US request for his extradition.

"No ambassador of any country, even if it's the US, is above our own Constitution," the lawmaker from Southern Leyte said.

"Mr. Hubbard, by his intemperate and threatening language, deserves to be tarred and feathered and sent home packing, so that future US ambassadors will know that they cannot trifle with our laws."

Hubbard, in a one-page letter, warned that the US government would abrogate its extradition treaty with the Philippines if the Supreme Court makes final its earlier decision to allow Jimenez and other international fugitives to get copies of the US extradition request.

He pointed out that the latest ruling of the tribunal may "strain the US-Philippine law enforcement relationship (since) it casts serious doubts on (the Philippine) government's ability to fulfill its obligations to the US under the extradition treaty."

Saludo added that he found it particularly galling that in interstate extradition, the rights which the Supreme Court is seeking to safeguard are inherently recognized while in international extradition, those rights are ignored.

"Is it because it is an all-American game in the case of the former, while in the latter it involves non-Americans?" he asked.

The congressman also pointed out that the likes of US assistant attorney general James Robinson and his deputy Bruce Swartz recognize the basic rights of Americans.

"Yet they now seek to trample on our Constitution by ignoring the rights of Mr. Jimenez to be informed of the charges against him and confront his accusers," he explained.

The US had requested that Jimenez, who was born Mario Crespo, be extradited from the Philippines to face charges of tax evasion, wire fraud and illegal campaign contribution to the Democratic Party in 1996.

However, Jimenez, who is a friend and former adviser on Latin American affairs of President Estrada, insisted that he be given a copy of the US request so he could answer it. The US strongly objected, saying it would violate the extradition treaty it had signed with the Philippines.

Hubbard reportedly handed his letter to former Justice Secretary Serafin Cuevas a day before the justice department filed a motion for reconsideration on the High Court's decision.

Cuevas, on the other hand, gave the letter to Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon Jr. who forwarded the note to the President.

Mr. Estrada has not issued any comment on the issue as of press time.