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Philippines and Canada sign Treaty to Repatriate Prisoners
May 22, 2003
Justice Secretary Simeon Datumanong and Canadian Ambassador Robert Collette today signed the Canada-Philippines "Treaty on the Transfer of Persons and Cooperation in the Enforcement of Penal Sentences".
This important Treaty outlines the process by which prisoners in both Canada and the Philippines will be able to apply to serve their prison sentences in their own countries closer to their families.
"The ordeal of serving one's prison sentence is mitigated if it is spent near his relatives and friends and within his own country thus making more effective the rehabilitation process," Secretary Datumanong said.
For his part, Ambassador Collette said that "The concept of offender transfers serves a very important humanitarian purpose." He added that the "signing of the Treaty is a further sign of growing cooperation between Canada and the Philippines."
The signing is particularly significant because this year marks the 25th anniversary of the very first prisoner transfer treaty in the world, implemented in 1978 between Canada and the United States. Since then, hundreds of similar treaties have been negotiated and implemented around the world, and thousands of prisoners have been transferred to their home countries, thus beginning their rehabilitation.
On the part of the Philippines, this is the second such kind of Treaty entered into by the government, the first being Hongkong in 2000.
The signing of the RP-Canada Treaty will also be announced at a special 25th anniversary international conference on prisoner transfer programs in Ottawa on May 23, at which Justice Undersecretary Merceditas Gutierrez is representing the Philippines.
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