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Annual joint military exercises involving the United States and the Philippines, cancelled last month, are now back on schedule, the US embassy and Philippine foreign affairs department have said.
The decision to resume the joint exercises comes after a US marine, convicted of raping a Filipina, was moved from a suburban Manila jail to the custody of the US embassy, as the US government had demanded.
“Now that the custody issue has been addressed, we will go forward on Balikatan,” said US embassy spokesman Matthew Lussenhop, referring to the annual joint military exercises known as “Balikatan” or “joined arms”.
“The Department of Foreign Affairs confirms that Balikatan 2007 will push through. The details will be announced by the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) and by US military authorities in the next few days,” said foreign affairs department spokesman Eduardo Malay on Tuesday.
Earlier, Philippine President Gloria Arroyo said her government was pressured into handing over the marine, Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, to American diplomats to stop bilateral relations from worsening.
Arroyo, in her first public statement since Smith was transferred to US embassy custody on Friday, said the move would not “impede justice and the rule of law”.
“The government had to take this action in order to forestall the further deterioration in our strategic relationship with the United States, which was being rapidly eroded by our non-compliance with the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA),” Arroyo said in a statement.
The VFA is a 1998 treaty that gives US authorities legal jurisdiction over American soldiers who commit crimes while on official tour in the former US colony.
Lussenhop denied any pressure had been exerted, saying “it's not an issue of giving in or anything of that nature”.
He added: “It was simply a question of living up to agreements between two governments.”
Smith was convicted in December of raping a Filipina, identified only as “Nicole” to protect her privacy, while on leave from joint war games in the northern port of Subic in 2005. Three other US marines were acquitted.
Washington demanded Smith be turned over to its embassy, citing the VFA. But the suburban Manila court that tried the case ordered him held in the local jail.
Rights groups marched to the US embassy in central Manila on Tuesday, chanting anti-US slogans and demanding the return of Smith to a Philippine jail.
“To bow to US pressure on the issue of custody of convicted rapist Smith is proof that the Philippines remains a colonial slave to its US master,” lawyer Virgie Pinlac, one of the leaders of the militant women's group Kaisaka, said.
Lawyers for the rape victim asked the country's second-highest court to cite several cabinet officials for contempt for facilitating the transfer of Smith, while opposition politicians warned that Arroyo could face impeachment charges over the issue
