Philippines USA relationship - After Murder

If he is charged of killing it off base then he should be in THEIR jail. He is accused of willfully breaking their law.

First lets see what happens. Maybe this clown did kill the person. Maybe not. Regardless the us should not hand over their service member as per the SOFA agreement. Filipinos don't trust their justice system amd neither should we. Secondly, the phillipines needs the US more than the other way around. As far as the public in the Philippines there is less sympathy for the victim than you might expect. It is a very conservative place with regard to morality. Think the US during the forties amd fifties when it comes to morality. The victims background amd the fact that she/ he was transgender weigh against. On the other hand no one wants a guest of their country killing their nationals regardless of their sexuality. SOP for this is the the US to hire a big law firm in Manila to mount a defense and they usually create enough reasonable doubt to bog the process down for a few years. If this clown did kill and is found guilty then serve his time( no death penalty in Phillipines). My take is status quo no new change. Guys. Stop killing allied nationals. Save it for the enemy.

First of all, we only have the Visting Forces Agreement (VFA) as far as I know. We no longer have the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) we used to, which gave the U.S. discretionary control of military forces in the P.I. for all offences. The VFA gives the P.I. the discretionary control for validated offences. The agreement also permits U.S. investigators access to all criminal data and investigatory details. While the justice system in the P.I. has a history of being less than scrupulous, the Philippine Government has a lot of good reasons to put pressure on their justices to keep this type of situation on the "up and up" - which is good and bad.

If this Marine did the crime, he should do the time. As mentioned by PO2 Ed C. being in a philippine prison as an american Marine has it's privileges. The Marine should be glad he's not in a Japanese prison for murder. Even though the Japanese justice system is fairly managed, I for one, would not want to stay in their prisons. One sleeps on a concrete block with a concrete pillow. One gets a standard blanket - though U.S. military personnel are provided with special privileges - they get a second blanket. If you want to eat you better hope your family brings food for you, though for U.S. military personnel either the military makes arrangements or the embassy does. Prison is prison.

There's a lot I sense, and has been mentioned elsewhere in this thread, that seems to be going on around this case that is not being openly discussed. Perhaps it will come out, perhaps not. When I was in the Pacific Fleet we used to warn our younger sailors that it might be useful to "check the package before you leave the bar".......