EDITORIAL - Murder, geopolitics and other tangled relations

With due respect to the family and friends of Jeffrey Laude who was allegedly killed by American serviceman Joseph Scott Pemberton, the murder couldn't have come at a more propitious time to test Philippine-American relations. Given Philippine expectations from the relationship, we should be able to get some real hard answers from the Americans.

It is true that in criminal cases committed in the Philippines by American servicemen, the Philippines has jurisdiction of the case but America keeps custody of its national. What this means is that the case can be tried in a Philippine court but that the American serviceman will be "detained" at any appropriate American facility, most probably its embassy.

But while that arrangement is in writing and part of the Visiting Forces Agreement between the two countries (why ever did the Philippines signed such a lopsided arrangement escapes most people), it is not exactly cast in stone. And the Philippines can always make a special case out of this, not necessarily because of the case itself but, as stated, to test the true measure of our relationship with America over which we expect so much.

And why do we need to test the relationship with America. Well, for one, we have this little thing with China over which we have been getting very robust assurances from America. The robust is stressed because if assurances were all that is needed to deal with China, that country would have been cowering by now. But China is not cowering. On the contrary, it has become more aggressive.

And why has China become more aggressive? Because it has read well the relationship America has with the Philippines. And according to its reading, America is not likely to go into a shooting war with China over the Philippines. And that is even if push comes to shove in the Philippine standoff with China over a string of tiny islets in the South China Sea.

But that is China's reading of Philippine relations with America. We have our own reading of the relationship, as must do America itself. And since it is a relationship between the Philippines and America, why not test it now to find some real hard answers to whether such a relationship does exist, at least in accordance with our reading of it.

It is good that the Philippines says it will insist on custody over Pemberton. Again, this is not about the case itself but its relevance to our relationship with America. America, because of its pivot to Asia, finds its relationship with the Philippines very strategic. How strategic, will be known by the kind of trade-off it is willing to allow. If it turns over Pemberton, the Philippines can at last sleep well. And it will be China that will have to rethink its strategies.