DAR AL HARB-PHILLIPINES:

Manila ponders review of security pact with US
By Gilbert Felongco, Correspondent

Manila: Officials in Manila and Washington are planning to review a treaty forged seven years ago in an effort to clarify some vague provisions of the pact, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said.

Ermita, during a press briefing at the palace, said the custody issue involving US Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith is a test case that exposed inadequacies in the treaty that officials of both countries have to work on in order to improve.

"I am very sure that both our government with the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the US government through their embassy, may have some thoughts about taking a look at it because we don't want similar things to happen in the future," Ermita said.

Just before midnight on Friday, Smith, who was sentenced by suburban Makati City regional trial court Judge Benjamin Pozon on December 4 to 40 years imprisonment for raping a Filipina student, was turned over to the custody of the US Embassy.

The turnover of Smith's custody elicited outrage from Filipino groups as well as Evalyn Ursua, the lawyer of the 23-year-old Filipina rape victim.

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