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By William B. Depasupil, Reporter
A decision of the Court of Appeals on a petition
for review filed by rape convict Daniel Smith hit another snag after
another justice assigned to the case inhibited himself from it.
Associate Justice Vicente Veloso on Tuesday quit
as head of the appellate court’s special 17th Division. He cited
his friendship with a lawyer for Smith, a Lance Corporal in the US
Marine Corps. Smith was convicted in 2006 by a Makati Regional Trial
Court for raping a 22-year-old Filipino known only as “Nicole.”
The appellate court has designated Associate
Justice Noel Tijam to replace Veloso.
Earlier, Associate Justice Celia Librea-Leagogo
also inhibited herself from the Smith case, also citing her
friendship with another lawyer for the convict.
Leagogo was replaced by Associate Justice
Apolinario Bruselas Jr., who also was poised to inhibit for having
penned an earlier decision of the Court of Appeals on the custody of
Smith.
The other members of the special 17th Division
are Associate Justice Agustin Dizon and Associate Justice Regalado
Maambong.
Maambong has left for abroad and might also
inhibit from the case, sources said. Dizon is set to retire on June
27. The case is set to be re-raffled to another division.
The appellate court’s decision on Smith’s
case had been expected to come out on or before President Gloria
Arroyo’s scheduled visit to the United States this month.
There were reports that the 17th Special
Division had already arrived at a decision on the Smith petition,
but that it was signed only by one of the three justices.
Members of Task Force Subic Rape, an
organization keeping watch over the “Nicole” case, had appealed
to the justices’ sense of fairness and independence.
“We got information that a justice is
preparing the decision to reverse Judge Benjamin Pozon’s
verdict,” said Yuen Abana of the Partido ng Manggawa, a part of
the task force.
“We are not entirely surprised because we saw
how the US exerted pressure on the GMA [Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo]
government just to have Smith [be] turned over to them [Americans]
after the guilty verdict [was handed down],” Abana added.
Lea Patricia Francisco of the Filipino/American
Coalition for Environmental Solidarity based in San Francisco,
California, also a part of the task force, wrote to Presiding
Justice Conrado Vasquez Jr. of the Court of Appeals to tell him that
“Nicole” must not be denied justice.
Task Force Subic Rape said no member of the US
military has been convicted for violating rights of Filipinos. It
added that 3,211 cases were filed against Americans in Subic and
Clark from 1980 to 1987 but that not one case prospered in court.
Subic, in Zambales province, was home to US naval forces and Clark,
in Pampanga province, to American land and air forces. They have
since been abolished by the Philippine Senate.
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