The Philippine Justice Department agrees and has filed a motion with the Makati judge to allow Smith to be confined in the US embassy until the completion of the appeal process. Kenney said the US stands by the provisions of the VFA, a joint military pact between the two countries.

In convicting Smith, Makati Regional Trial Court Judge Benjamin Pozon ordered him to pay damages and detained at the Makati city jail. He rejected the plea of Smith’s lawyers that the US embassy continue to retain custody over him.

The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Justice have agreed that under the VFA the US embassy can continue to keep Smith in custody until the appeal is completed.

Leftist and activist women’s groups, including the rape victim identified only as “Nicole,” immediately denounced the government’s move and demanded that Smith be confined like an ordinary criminal in a Philippine jail.

Ambassador Kenney  said the three US Marines acquitted of complicity — Lance Corporals Keith Silkwood and Dominic Duplantis and Staff Sergeant Chad Carpentier — went back to their duty station and faced investigation in accordance with the established procedures of the US military.

“But obviously this is a difficult (moment) for everyone involved,” said Kenney, adding the United States “respected the terms” of the VFA.

“Anyone who was declared guilty, we will obviously then work on that step with their lawyers to determine what their side be," she added.

Sobs of distress turned into cries of joy as a clerk read the stinging words of Judge Pozon. Calling the November 2005 sexual attack on 22-year-old Nicole a display of “chilling, naked sadism,” Pozon declared Smith guilty and sentenced him to 40 years in jail. Pozon acquitted Smith’s three Marine companions even as he rejected their testimonies before the court.

Nicole, huddled with her kin and private lawyer, wept copiously as the decision was read. Her cries grew with the sound of murmurs as Pozon’s review of the case indicated a guilty verdict.

“God is good. God knows the truth,’ said Nicole, now 23, who braved one year of intense media exposure in her search for justice.

“I am happy even if only one [of the US Marines] was  convicted. At least the court got the prime suspect," Nicole said after the verdict was read.

But a man of the cloth, Jesuit priest Fr. James Reuter, would later lash out at the ‘emotional’ verdict, saying the decision was not just.

Nicole was raped in the back of a rented van after a night out with the defendants at the former US naval base of Subic Bay. The case unleashed a wave of anti-American protests and demonstrations.

Smith became the first American soldier to be convicted of a crime since the Philippine Senate ordered US bases shut down in the early 1990s and joint training was established in 1998 under the VFA.

In addition to the sentence, Smith was ordered to pay the defendant P100,000 (US$2,000) in compensatory and moral damages.

As the verdict was read, Smith and his three Marine comrades, Lance Corporals Keith Silkwood and Dominic Duplantis and Staff Sergeant Chad Carpentier, stood still.

There were tears when a not-guilty finding was read for the Silkwood, Duplantis and Carpentier but the room erupted in victory whoops as Smith was pronounced guilty.

“Jail him, jail him!’ activists chanted at the end of a trial that had raised anew images of the ugly American.

Outside the courtroom, confetti rained on hundreds of Nicole’s supporters.

Her private lawyer, Evalyn Ursua, hailed Pozon for his ‘great courage and judicial independence.’

Neither Ursua nor Nicole wasted time on the acquittal of Smith’s three companions. Ursua said they understood the judge’s position, adding that it was the failure of the prosecution to present the van driver that led to the three soldiers’ freedom.

But Reuter, spiritual adviser of the four US Marines said that he was gravely disappointed with the outcome of the trial.

“I’ve been here since 1938, I’m pro-Filipino but I am not pro- the story that is told here," said Reuter.

“I feel very sad that they convicted Smith. I think that the decision was not just," said Reuter, a World War II veteran.

He chided the judge for oratorical language and said judges do not normally use words like ‘heinous crime’ and ‘bestiality’ do not usually come from a judge.

Father Reuter said, “I do think that they [US Marines] are tried by the media and tried by the riots and demonstrations in the street."

He insisted that it is not because he’s an American that he wants the accused free.

“I have listen to these men for the past year and I know that they are telling the truth."

 “I wouldn’t blame what the victim was saying because she was telling what was taught. Smith is also telling it as he was taught also. It was like a Japanese picture where you are telling a story from two different angles," said Father  Reuter.

Uniformed Filipino police swiftly escorted Smith out through a side door after the guilty verdict was read out, while the three acquitted Americans walked free through the front door, escorted by US Embassy personnel. A brief scuffle erupted when US embassy guards tried to stop Smith from going with the police.