Women's group condemns Smith's transfer to embassy

Gabriela-Cebu condemned the alleged "brazen anti-Filipino and anti-women" transfer of convicted rapist US Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith to US custody last Friday night.

"Gabriela asserts that the whole Filipino nation be outraged at this brazen infringement of Philippine sovereignty," the group said in a statement.

Smith was transferred at 11 p.m. last Friday night from the Makati City Jail to the US Embassy.

Gabriela also said that despite the Court of Appeals' rejection of the previous motion to return Smith to US custody,

"Sneaky and cowardly actions - as reflected by the silence of Gloria and her minions of US lapdogs," Gabriela said.

Smith's transfer occurred despite calls by various groups that he remain in detention in a Philippine jail.

Moreover, the women's group said the event only proved that the Arroyo administration considers US interests as above Philippine laws.

"This is disrespect to the Filipino people...is this how a president serves the nation? This is how she serves George Bush and the Imperialist US," it added.

In Manila, Smith's transfer triggered protests outside the US embassy, with some 200 activists waving placards calling Bush and Arroyo "the king and queen of rapists."

Bayan Muna party-list representative and House Deputy minority leader Satur Ocampo, dubbed Smith's transfer as "treachery to national sovereignty bordering on treason of President Arroyo and her cohorts."

He said that if reports were true that there was no court order allowing the transfer, the Regional Trial Court and the Court of Appeals should hold the erring officials liable for conniving with the US embassy in violating Philippine laws.

Gabriela party-list Rep. Liza Maza said: "The return of Smith to US custody in the dead of the night orchestrated by the US and the Arroyo government was a flagrant violation of the court's decision and the Philippine Constitution."

Maza called on the Filipino people and all the lawyers to defend the country's judicial processes and the Constitution's sovereignty. She urged that they stand by the decision of Judge Benjamin Pozon, who sentenced Smith to 40 years in jail last December 4 for the rape of a Filipina the other year. - Wenna A. Berondo