Press Release
February 20, 2009

Pia hits DOJ secretary's 'gross intellectual dishonesty'

Senate opposition member Pia S. Cayetano today slammed what she called the "gross intellectual dishonesty" of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales for floating the idea that American soldier-rapist Lance Corporal Daniel Smith may be detained in a Philippine-run facility in the United States pending the appeal of his case.

Cayetano, a lawyer, questioned the real motive of Gonzales, who recently blamed the "vague phrasing" of the Supreme Court in its Feb.11 ruling on the detention of American soldiers covered by the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

"Instead of asserting custody by Philippine authorities, Gonzales is making up unsound legal interpretations like he was lawyering for the US, and even if his ideas clearly contradict the Constitution," said the lady senator, reacting to reports about the justice secretary's 'brief resource paper.'

"The justice secretary's intellectual dishonesty exposes the Arroyo administration's real agenda and its willingness to sell out Philippine sovereignty just to please the US government on the custody issue over Smith."

Cayetano, a lawyer, added that Gonzales' "feeble attempt to sow legal confusion by claiming vagueness in the High Court's decision even when there's none, only goes to show how the integrity of the DOJ under him has sunken to the lowest depths."

"Why pass the blame on the Supreme Court by saying their decision is vague? And why didn't he go straight to the High Court first, and instead went to media? What is his real agenda?"

"Cabinet officials who resort to legal confusion have no business representing the people and defending our laws," the lady senator stressed.

She said the blatant display of subservience by the Arroyo administration, in addition to the secret VFA agreement that was exposed by Sen. Joker Arroyo yesterday, should give senators more reason to call for the immediate review and abrogation of this lopsided agreement.

Cayetano is one of the six senators who have signed Senate Resolution No. 892.

She expressed concern over the 14-page paper signed in 1998 by then US Ambassador to the Philippines Thomas Hubbard and then Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon Jr. Under the secret agreement, a Filipino soldier who commits a crime in the United States cannot be housed in a Philippine embassy or consulate but "shall be served in penal institutions in the United States suitable for the custody level of the prisoner."

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