MANILA, Philippines – Interior Undersecretary Marius Corpus maintained that there is no basis for the allegation of a lawyer that convicted rapist United States Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith is not in the custody of the US embassy.
Corpus confirmed the statement of Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera that he and other members of the inspection panel checked Smith’s quarters at the US embassy in Manila last Sept. 12.
“He’s there (US Embassy detention cell). I just visited him Sept. 12. He was transferred to a container van and not outside the US embassy. I even have pictures of my last visits,” Corpus told The STAR.
Corpus heads the Philippine government’s inspection panel tasked to conduct regular inspection in the US embassy to check if Smith remains under the embassy’s custody.
Corpus announced last July that Smith, who was convicted in 2006 of raping a Filipina in Subic in 2005, was transferred to a container van because the building where Smith’s cell was located was up for demolition.
The container van where Smith is detained has simple amenities, but it still looks and feels like a detention cell, said Corpus.
Smith was sentenced to 40 years in jail for the rape of a Filipina inside the Subic Bay Freeport on Nov. 1, 2005.
Lawyer Harry Roque had questioned the whereabouts of Smith, citing information from a US embassy official that the soldier had been moved out of the embassy and was staying somewhere in Quezon City.