Sen. Loren Legarda yesterday made this assurance amid concerns raised by some of her colleagues over the grant of Philippine congressional concurrence on the agreement in the light of recent revelations of the “numerous cases of physical and sexual abuse of minors, supposedly committed by members of the Australian armed forces.”
An article that that came out in The New York Times last June 15 said Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard raised the possibility of a high-level public inquiry or convening of a royal commission, a major investigative body occasionally used by some countries of the Commonwealth, to look into sensitive public issues.
“No offender from the visiting forces who commits a crime in the Philippines will escape justice under the SoVFA,” Legarda, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee and sponsor of the said treaty, said.
The agreement, she added, has an existing set of clear cut rules governing the criminal jurisdiction of the Philippines over errting Australian soldiers..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/nation/item/789-aussie-pedophiles-may-flock-to-rp-if-sovfa-ok%E2%80%99d-%E2%80%94-solons
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