Reference: Rachel Redondiez, Secretary-General, BAYAN USA
The US chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, or BAYAN USA, slammed the Arroyo regime in the Philippines for the transferal of convicted US rapist Lance Corporal Daniel Smith from a Makati jail to US custody in a midnight maneuver ordered by Malacanang last Saturday.
Smith had been recently convicted in a historic Philippine judiciary decision on charges of raping a 22 year old Filipina woman known as “Nicole” last November 2005. The conviction was the first for a member of US military personnel for crimes committed on Philippine soil in a Philippine court.
“We are outraged and thoroughly disgusted by the Arroyo government’s vision for the Philippines– one where those who fight for the democratic rights for the people are ordered to be killed and where US marines can get off scot-free for gang-raping our women. Smith’s transferal is an underhanded maneuver by Arroyo to appease her master at the cost of our country’s dignity and sovereignty,” stated Rachel Redondiez of BAYAN USA.
“The only hope for justice for Nicole and for our country is a total ouster of Arroyo, the number one traitor of the nation and violator of Filipino women. It will be up to the people now to disinfect Malacanang of her administration. Arroyo will not be able to prevent the inevitable wave of outrage and isolation she will suffer for her treacherous ways,” Redondiez continued.
Redondiez likened the custody transferal to a condonement of continuous rape and sexual violations of Filipino women and the Filipino people under the context of the historical unequal relations between the US and the Philippines.
“As Filipinos in the US, products of this unequal relationship, we demand every US troop leave Philippine soil, that the Visiting Forces Agreement be revoked. The VFA is the concrete manifestation of a century-long legacy US interests raping our land,” Redondiez added.