RSS Feeds: A Political Pawn for the Philippines Known as Daniel Smith
According to reports from the Associated Press and Reuters, as well as a hundred other news outlets, the Philippines Supreme Court ruled (within the last 24 hours) that Lance Corporal Daniel Smith has to be transferred from custody at the US Embassy to a Filipino prison.
Convicted in 2006
Charged in November of 2005, Lance Corporal Smith was convicted on December 4, 2006, and sentenced to 40 years in prison. The case is still under appeal and it's now 2009.
Through some political wrangling, Smith was moved from a facility in Makati, Metro Manila to the US Embassy where he has been in custody. To hear the Filipino journalists tell the story, you'd think he was living in the lap of luxury. He's in a container van with fewer accommodations than the average American prisoner in the US.
What Appeal?
The Court of Appeals was supposed to make a decision last year, but somehow every judge in charge of it has been taken off the case. Now there's a new judge assigned.
What are they afraid of? That he's not guilty as charged? Or are they afraid they'll get lynched by the leftist, subversive Filipino groups that seem to dominate politics in Manila?
Ordered to Negotiate
The Supreme Court ordered the government of the Philippines to negotiate with the US concerning the transfer from US custody to Philippines custody. That means that that the new US Secretary of State, Hilary Rodham Clinton, gets to use her new-found power for something more important than political ass-kissing in Washington.
It doesn't matter what the outcome of the negotiations are. Smith will be transferred to a Philippines prison where he will be intentionally forgotten. The Court of Appeals will continue to find excuses not to do anything at all. Smith has already been in some form of custody for over three years. I'm guessing the Court of Appeals will eventually uphold the convicting judge's decision, as warped as it was, and Smith will probably die in prison.
I know I'm being extremely negative about all this, but I have good reason to be the way I am. The murderers of two brothers-in-law (in 2001) are still at large due to the inadequacies and corruption of the legal system in the Philippines, while a rape case without solid evidence went through without a hitch. Something stinks in the Philippines and it isn't "shit river" (the colloquial name for the river that separates the Subic Bay Freeport Zone from Olongapo) that I'm smelling.
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This is interesting and I recommend Filipinos take a few minutes to read it:
http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=ranhilioAquino_mar9_2009
when ive heard about it, that daniel smith will be detained at U.S prison, i was shocked,, why he should be detained in U.S when he committed his crime here.. i think the philippine government should do something to get daniel smith back in the philippines and be improsoned here..
Definetely more time than he would have ever needed!
I think politics has always been this corrupt, but it is increasingly harder for politicians to get away with it these days. Even so I can’t help but feeling we have only scratched the surface, of how wide spread political corruption truly is.