Time to close the one-way street to nowhere

Everybody should stand up and applaud the ruling of the Philippine Supreme Court which declared that the American Marine convicted of raping a Filipino woman should be detained in a Philippine-run facility and not at the US Embassy, where he has been staying.

Voting 9-4, the Supreme Court ruled that the "executive agreement" which Philippine foreign secretary Alberto Romulo and US Ambassador Kristie Kenney signed in 2006 was inconsistent with the provisions of the Visiting Forces Agreement between the two countries.

The VFA governs the conduct of servicemen participating in joint military exercises in the Philippines. It is an agreement that the leftists have described as grossly disadvantageous to the national interest, and the case of Marine Cpl. Daniel Smith underscored why.

It is just unfortunate that while the Supreme Court voted to have Smith transferred to a Philippine prison from the US Embassy where he had been awaiting his appeal, it at the same time recognized the validity of the VFA.

The VFA is one more proof of the kind of relationship we have with the United States, which is good if it suits American interests, and even better if it suits American interests at the expense of Filipinos.

The Americans, with their standard non-committal stance on sticky issues, are not going to admit it, but they have always relegated Filipinos in our supposedly "enduring" alliance and friendship to the shorter end of any deal.

The Philippines and the United States are supposed to be parties to a mutal defense pact, but when the Chinese took over some Philippine-claimed islets in the Spratlys that the almost-non-existent Philippine military had been unable to defend, the US just stood idly by.

Of course we did not expect the United States to go to war for us if we ourselves are in no position to do so. But at least it could have issued even just an encouraging word in our moment of utter helplessness.

But not a word issued from the United States which, it was increasingly becoming apparent at the time, was preparing to dump us in favor of the emerging giant that it could no longer afford to ignore, much less antagonize.

The most glaring example of how we are being treated shabbily was when President Arroyo was given the insulting cold shoulder by President Obama when the Philippine leader attended the same function in Washington where the American leader was the speaker.

Call Arroyo anything you want, but she is still a head of state recognized by the rest of the world even if, admittedly, many world leaders may loathe her privately on account of what we Filipinos ourselves have been accusing her of doing.

As a head of state, therefore, she deserves the basic courtesies due her position, if not her person. If Obama hates her for the same reasons that many Filipinos do, he should have at least shown respect for her position, which is in representation of the Filipino nation.

By snubbing Arroyo, Obama did not just insult her person. He insulted all Filipinos. Do not give us that mumbo-jumbo about protocol. When two heads of state happen to be in the same room, elementary courtesy dictates they at least acknowledge each other, no matter how briefly.

So, now that the Philippine Supreme Court has spoken, let us not wait for the Americans to find a way to bully a way out for their boy who mercilessly raped a Filipino girl. Throw him into our version of hell.

If the Iranians and the North Vietnamese, to whom the Americans owe nothing, can do it, so could we, who once willingly volunteered the lives of our young boys in defense of America, and for which they got practically nothing up to this time, the twilight of their years.