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Philippines–United States Visiting Forces Agreement
The Philippines–United States Visiting Forces Agreement, sometimes the PH–US Visiting Forces Agreement, is a bilateral visiting forces agreement between the Philippines and the United States consisting of two separate documents. The first of these documents is commonly referred to as "the VFA" or "VFA-1", and the second as "VFA-2" or "the Counterpart Agreement". A visiting forces agreement is a version of a status of forces agreement that only applies to troops temporarily in a country. The agreements came into force on May 27, 1999, upon ratification by the Senate of the Philippines. The United States government regards these documents to be executive agreements not requiring approval by the United States Senate. Provisions The primary effect of the Agreement is that it allows the U.S. government to retain jurisdiction over U.S. military personnel accused of committing crimes in the Philippines, unless the crimes are "of particular importance to the Philippines". This ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ACCESS
Access may refer to: Companies and organizations * ACCESS (Australia), an Australian youth network * Access (credit card), a former credit card in the United Kingdom * Access Co., a Japanese software company * Access Healthcare, an Indian BPO services provider * Access International Advisors, a hedge fund * AirCraft Casualty Emotional Support Services * Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services * Access, the Alphabet division containing Google Fiber * Access, the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority's paratransit service Sailing * Access 2.3, a sailing keelboat * Access 303, a sailing keelboat * Access Liberty, a sailing keelboat Television * ''Access Hollywood'', formerly ''Access'', an American entertainment newsmagazine * ''Access'' (British TV programme), a British entertainment television programme * ''Access'' (Canadian TV series), a Canadian television series (1974–1982) * Access TV, a former Canadian educational television channel (1973–2011) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Military Court
A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the military, armed forces subject to Military justice, military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment. In addition, courts-martial may be used to try prisoner of war, prisoners of war for war crimes. The Geneva Conventions require that Prisoner of war, POWs who are on trial for war crimes be subject to the same procedures as would be the holding military's own forces. Finally, courts-martial can be convened for other purposes, such as dealing with violations of martial law, and can involve civilian defendants. Most navies have a standard court-martial which convenes whenever a ship is lost; this does not presume that the captain is suspected of wrongdoing, but merely that the circumstances surroundin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
En Banc
In law, an en banc session (; French for "in bench"; also known as ''in banc'', ''in banco'' or ''in bank'') is a session in which a case is heard before all the judges of a court (before the entire bench) rather than by one judge or a smaller panel of judges. ''En banc'' review is used for unusually complex or important cases or when the court feels there is a particularly significant issue at stake. United States Federal appeals courts in the United States sometimes grant rehearing to reconsider the decision of a panel of the court (consisting of only three judges) in which the case concerns a matter of exceptional public importance or the panel's decision appears to conflict with a prior decision of the court. In rarer instances, an appellate court will order hearing ''en banc'' as an initial matter instead of the panel hearing it first. Cases in United States courts of appeals are heard by three-judge panels, randomly chosen from the sitting appeals court judges of tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Supreme Court Of The Philippines
The Supreme Court ( fil, Kataas-taasang Hukuman; colloquially referred to as the ''Korte Suprema'' lso used in formal writing is the highest court in the Philippines. The Supreme Court was established by the Second Philippine Commission on June 11, 1901 through the enactment of its Act No. 136, an Act which abolished the '' Real Audiencia de Manila'', the predecessor of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court compound, which sits in what is formerly a part of the University of the Philippines Manila campus, occupies the corner of Padre Faura Street and Taft Avenue in Ermita, Manila, with the main building directly in front of the Philippine General Hospital’s cancer institute. History Pre-hispanic period Prior to the conquest of Spain, the islands of the Philippines were composed of independent barangays, each of which is community composed of 30 to 100 families. Typically, a barangay is headed by a ''datu'' or a local chief who exercises all functions of government—executiv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement
The Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) is an agreement between the United States and the Philippines intended to bolster the American–Philippine alliance. The agreement allows the United States to rotate troops into the Philippines for extended stays and allows the United States to build and operate facilities on Philippine bases for both American and Philippine forces. The U.S. is not allowed to establish any permanent military bases. The Philippines have personnel access to American ships and planes. The EDCA is a supplemental agreement to the previous Visiting Forces Agreement. The agreement was signed by Philippine Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg in Manila on April 28, 2014, preceding a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama that same day. On January 12, 2016, the Philippine Supreme Court upheld the agreement's constitutionality in a 10–4 vote. On July 26, 2016, the Philippine Supreme Court ruled with fina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Death Of Jennifer Laude
On October 11, 2014, Jennifer Laude (), a Filipina trans woman, was drowned to death by Joseph Scott Pemberton, a Lance Corporal in the United States Marine Corps in Olongapo, Philippines. Pemberton admitted assaulting Laude and deployed a trans panic defense in his 2015 trial. His charge was downgraded from murder to homicide by a judge in 2015, and he was convicted on December 1, 2015. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte granted an absolute pardon to Pemberton in September 2020. This was the second reported criminal case involving a United States Marine in the Philippines under the Philippines–United States Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the first since the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). The killing spawned protests in the Philippines by transgender rights groups and other activists. Killing Laude, a trans woman, met Pemberton, a United States Marine from New Bedford, Massachusetts, at the Ambyanz disco bar in Olongapo on the evening of October 11, 2014 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philippine Congress
The Congress of the Philippines ( fil, Kongreso ng Pilipinas, italic=unset) is the legislature of the national government of the Philippines. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, although colloquially the term "Congress" commonly refers to just the latter, and an upper body, the Senate. The House of Representatives meets in the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City while the Senate meets in the GSIS Building in Pasay. The Senate is composed of 24 senators half of which are elected every three years. Each senator, therefore, serves a total of six years. The senators are elected at-large and do not represent any geographical district. In the current 19th Congress, there are 316 seats in the House of Representatives. The Constitution states that the House "shall be composed of not more than 250 members, unless otherwise fixed by law," and that at least 20% of it shall be sectoral representatives. There are two types of congressmen: the district and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Class Citizen
A second-class citizen is a person who is systematically and actively discriminated against within a state or other political jurisdiction, despite their nominal status as a citizen or a legal resident there. While not necessarily slaves, outlaws, illegal immigrants, or criminals, second-class citizens have significantly limited legal rights, civil rights and socioeconomic opportunities, and are often subject to mistreatment and exploitation at the hands of their putative superiors. Systems with ''de facto'' second-class citizenry are widely regarded as violating human rights. Typical conditions facing second-class citizens include but are not limited to: * disenfranchisement (a lack or loss of voting rights) * limitations on civil or military service (not including conscription in every case) * restrictions on language, religion, education * lack of freedom of movement, expression, and association * limitations on the right to keep and bear arms * restrictions on ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Immunity From Prosecution (international Law)
Immunity from prosecution is a doctrine of international law that allows an accused to avoid prosecution for criminal offences. Immunities are of two types. The first is functional immunity, or immunity '' ratione materiae''. This is an immunity granted to people who perform certain functions of state. The second is personal immunity, or immunity '' ratione personae''. This is an immunity granted to certain officials because of the office they hold, rather than in relation to the act they have committed. Functional immunity Functional immunity arises from customary international law and treaty law and confers immunities on those performing acts of state (usually a foreign official). Any person who, in performing an act of state, commits a criminal offence is immune from prosecution. That is so even after the person ceases to perform acts of state. Thus, it is a type of immunity limited in the acts to which it attaches (acts of state) but ends only if the state itself ceases ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the person, body, or institution that has the ultimate authority over other people in order to establish a law or change an existing law. In political theory, sovereignty is a substantive term designating supreme legitimate authority over some polity. In international law, sovereignty is the exercise of power by a state. ''De jure'' sovereignty refers to the legal right to do so; ''de facto'' sovereignty refers to the factual ability to do so. This can become an issue of special concern upon the failure of the usual expectation that ''de jure'' and ''de facto'' sovereignty exist at the place and time of concern, and reside within the same organization. Etymology The term arises from the unattested Vulgar Latin's ''*superanus'', (itself derived ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Embassy In Manila
The Embassy of the United States of America to the Philippines is the diplomatic mission of the United States in the Philippines. is situated in the Chancery Building of the Manila American Embassy along Roxas Boulevard (formerly Dewey Boulevard) in Ermita, Manila. The Embassy has been representing the United States Government since the Philippines was granted independence on July 4, 1946. The Manila mission is one of the US Department of State's largest posts, employing close to 300 Americans and 1,000 Foreign Service national employees. The mission also hosts the only foreign office of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which caters to some 18,000 American and Filipino veterans and their widows in the Philippines (see also Filipino Veterans Fairness Act.) Manila's Regional Printing Center provides printing and distribution services for overseas and domestic publications. Smaller branches exist in Vienna, Austria and Washington, D.C. but Manila is the flagship facility. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Subic Rape Case
The Subic rape case, officially known as ''People of the Philippines vs. Dominic Duplantis, Keith Silkwood, and Daniel Smith'', was a criminal case in the Philippines involving a Filipina and four United States marines. It caught wide media coverage and achieved political and international significance because of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the United States and the Philippines, which had been the subject of protests from the beginning. Initially, the accuser, Suzette Nicolas, alleged that she was gang-raped but after a few days, she then said that only Lance Corporal Daniel Smith raped her. She said that just before midnight of November 1, 2005, Smith raped her inside a moving Hyundai Starex van at Alava Pier in the Subic Bay Freeport where the marines' ship was docked. Nicolas also alleged that Smith's other companions, Lance Corporals Keith Silkwood were inside the van cheering Smith on as it happened. Smith countered the charges saying that what occurred betw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
