RP, US to swap prisoners

Justice Secretary Hernando Perez has disclosed the Philippines may soon forge an agreement with the US for an exchange of convicted criminal offenders.

Perez, who recently met with four US Embassy officials led by chargé d’affaires Michael Malinowski, said the discussions included the possibility of a prisoner swap involving Americans serving sentences here and Filipinos in US jails.

Perez, however, clarified there was nothing definite yet especially since the Philippine government has no list of Filipinos convicted in the US.

"They already have a list of Americans in jail here, but we don’t have our own list. We still have to check with our embassy or the Department of Foreign Affairs," he said.

Joining Malinowski in the meeting were political adviser Judith Cefkin, Federal Bureau of Investigation legal attaché James Nixon and economic adviser Morton Holbrooke III.

Perez said the embassy officials reiterated that the issue was extremely important to the US government.

"They told me there is great pressure on them to protect American citizens. And because of that pressure, we decided to talk about it. Soon, there will be a fair exchange of convicts," he said.

If ever the deal pushes through, it would not be the first time the Philippines would be forging an agreement for a prisoner swap with another country.

In April last year, the Philippines and Hong Kong agreed to the transfer of some 150 Filipino convicts from the Special Administrative Region and almost a hundred Hong Kong nationals from the Philippines.

The prisoner swap agreement only covers those serving sentences of three years or more and who still have at least one year of their sentences left to serve. Death convicts are not covered by the agreement.

Hong Kong nationals, most of whom were convicted of drug-related crimes, will have to serve their sentence in their homeland. The same goes for Filipinos, most of whom have been jailed for minor offenses like theft and smuggling.

Justice Undersecretary Merceditas Gutierrez said a prisoner swap deal had already been planned with Thailand and that many other countries have expressed willingness to forge a similar agreement.

She added a bill involving the transfer of sentenced persons is pending at the House of Representatives.