By Joyce Pangco Pa?ares

THE Arroyo administration will go ?very slow? in renegotiating a deal that granted the US Embassy custody over convicted rapist Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith, Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said yesterday.

While Puno said Smith could be transferred to the New Bilibid Prisons after the negotiations, the process could include a government appeal to the Supreme Court, which ruled Wednesday that its custody deal violated the Visiting Forces Agreement between the Philippines and the United States.

?We do not want to pre-judge the process because it will unduly affect the atmosphere of friendship we have with the United States... So we have to go very slow on this and not get ahead of ourselves,? Puno said in an interview at the Palace yesterday.

?I would not be surprised if the Solicitor General went back to the Supreme Court and asked for clarification and reconsideration,? Puno said.

The question is, after executive agreements have been made, can they be unilaterally renegotiated or discarded? It has to do with our obligations with the international community, so we have to be very careful how we proceed from here.?

Puno said the government would stand by the executive agreement barring renegotiations, which meant Smith would remain at the US Embassy despite the Supreme Court order that he be transferred to a Philippine jail.

?This is an existing executive agreement and we cannot violate that,? Puno said.

?We stand by it, and we?re not going to even talk about any other arrangements [for Smith?s transfer] barring a change to this executive agreement.?

In its decision Wednesday, the Supreme Court said the executive agreement signed by Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo and US Ambassador Kristie Kenney in December 2006 violated the terms of the treaty between their two countries.

But Puno urged caution.

?I don?t think we should jump the gun,? he said.

?Let?s not get ourselves upset or excited about this because the first step is the portion of the Supreme Court decision for the Department of Foreign Affairs to renegotiate this. Barring that, there can be no change in the situation.?

The Foreign Affairs Department said yesterday it would consult with the Justice and Local Government Departments on how to proceed. In the meantime, it added, Smith would stay detained at the US Embassy in line with the Supreme Court?s ruling that the status quo be maintained until his transfer was negotiated.

But Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Ta?ada, chairman of the House committee on human rights, yesterday demanded swift action from the Foreign Affairs Department.

When Smith was convicted, Romulo and Kenney ?were very quick in forging agreements... for him to be transferred to and detained in the US Embassy,? Ta?ada said.

?It should therefore not take them more than 15 days to reach an accord as to where he should be transferred.?

Ta?ada said the Supreme Court order was for negotiations to begin immediately.

In December 2006, a Makati City court found Smith guilty of raping a Filipina, identified in court only as Nicole, in Subic in late 2005.

Three other US servicemen with Smith?Staff Sgt. Chad Carpentier and Lance Cpls. Dominique Duplantis and Keith Silkwood?were acquitted.