A murderer set free in the Philippines

September 08, 2020

Hello friends,

A dark, nasty one from the Philippines today where a 2014 murder is back in the headlines and raising all sorts of questions about who the political and legal establishment protect and advocate for. There’s a lot of legal machinations here which I have tried to steer away from due to a lack of knowledge of that area and focusing instead on the political and social fall-out.

This is free to all readers so please share widely if you’d like.

Thanks,Erin Cook

Pemberton, c/o his Facebook 

United States Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton will soon be heading back to the US after being sprung from incarceration in the Philippines over the October 2014 murder of Jennifer Laude. Laude, a 26-year-old transwoman, was strangled and drowned by Pemberton, then 19-years-old, in a hotel in Olongapo City. 

Pemberton was initially sentenced to six to 10 but a local court has found he’s effectively served that when good behaviour is taken into account. The Laude family immediately appealed the decision. This video report from CNN Philippines is a long one, but if you’ve got the time and the interest it’s certainly worth watching in full. Just a warning, there’s funeral footage of the Laude family and it’s devastating.  

Harry Roque is now President Duterte’s presidential spokesman, but before that he represented the Laude family in the trial. And he is furious. 

“Laude’s death personifies the death of Philippine sovereignty and the light penalty imposed on Pemberton proves that despite the President's independent foreign policy, that Americans continue to have the status of conquering colonials in our country,” he said last week.

He is out of step with the big boss. Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. confirmed on Twitter Monday that President Rodrigo Duterte has granted an absolute pardon to the American. 

The whole affair has raised a question which looms large over the country (and the broader region/world, I suppose) — the US, or China? Pemberton was able to serve much of his sentence within Camp Aguinaldo, in Quezon City, in accordance with the suddenly very controversial Visting Forces Agreement. That Duterte reversed his own decision to slow down the Department of Justice in releasing Pemberton will surely reignite the ‘pick a side’ conversation after leaning heavily China for most of his administration. 

Duterte has denied the US was involved at all, stating that the merits of the case were all he paid attention to. “It’s my decision to pardon. Correct me if I’m wrong, this is how I view the case. We have not treated Pemberton fairly, so I ordered his release,” the President said Monday. 

An important part to note here is that if the VFA were to be terminated — as it was meant to do last month — it would leave Pemberton in limbo. I don’t understand the law enough to know what would happen to the man, but if there had been some background lobbying by some party or another on Pemberton’s behalf to keep him out of the Philippines’ infamous prison system that would be kinda obvious to me. 

The state of US-Phillippines relations and the impact of China is an important conversation which has deep ramifications for the Philippines and Asean. But also, who cares. A woman was murdered and her body found shoved head-first into a toilet and the young man who did it will go home now. Activists and supporters have come out to protest the decision and I expect we’ll see more movement on this front in coming days if the fury online spills over. 

“What is the basis of granting absolute pardon to convicted US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton? Why preempt the court process? Why is the President in a rush to pardon the killer of Filipino transwoman Jennifer Laude? The absolute pardon, and the context and timing of the same, is a betrayal of national interest and a great injustice for the Laude family,” Renato Reyes, secretary-general of left-wing coalition Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, said in a statement Monday. 

At least one legal expert is a bit confused. Former Supreme Court spokesman Theodore Te on Friday raised eyebrows over the court’s decision. "I am actually asking that question myself: Kasi mag-isa siya doon eh [he was alone in his cell], it's not a usual place of detention. What is the objective basis for saying that this person has actually shown good conduct? That part is intriguing to me," he said on CNN Philippines. 

Expect to hear more about this one in the coming weeks. Laude’s family have widespread support from Filipinos interested in a range of vital issues from LGBT rights to US militarism in the archipelago. I’ll be keeping an eye on President Duterte — this is the latest asterisk to be added to his ‘president of the people’ brand 

Just recently, Roque was adamant that Pemberton did not deserve to be released before he had served his sentence, noting that Laude’s death personified the death of Philippine sovereignty.

“As former Private Prosecutor for the Laude family, I deplore the short period of imprisonment meted on Pemberton who killed a Filipino under the most gruesome manner,” Roque said in a Twitter post. “Laude’s death personifies the death of Philippine sovereignty.”

Laude’s relatives have appealed the Olongapo court’s decision to release Pemberton. Virginia Suarez, a lawyer for the family, said Thursday that the court did not inform them that Pemberton had applied for early release, and she argued that he was ineligible because of a lack of proof about his reformed character.

“He never even apologized to the family . . . [yet] he has the nerve to invoke good conduct,” Suarez said.

The Philippine Justice Department and presidential spokesman Harry Roque, who previously served as a lawyer for the Laude family, said Pemberton would not be released while the appeal is underway.

“Our fellow citizen cannot be treated like an animal, with just a slap on the wrist as punishment,” Roque told reporters Thursday. He said the court order went against a recommendation from the prison bureau and that only the executive branch — not the court — could determine credit for good conduct.

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