Philippines pardons US Marine for killing transgender woman

The Philippine president has pardoned a US Marine in a surprise move that will free him from imprisonment for the 2014 killing of a transgender Filipino woman that sparked anger in the former American colony.

Teodoro Locsin Jr, the Philippine foreign secretary, tweeted that Rodrigo Duterte had “granted an absolute pardon” to L/Cpl Joseph Scott Pemberton “to do justice”, but did not elaborate. Duterte was to deliver televised remarks on Monday night where he would discuss Pemberton’s case, a presidential spokesman, Harry Roque, said.

A leftwing human rights group, Karapatan, immediately condemned the pardon as a “despicable and shameless mockery of justice and servility to US imperialist interests”.

Pemberton was convicted of homicide and has been serving a prison sentence of six to 10 years for the killing of Jennifer Laude in a motel in Olongapo city, north-west of Manila. His lawyer, Rowena Garcia-Flores, told the Associated Press that Pemberton had already been aware of Duterte’s decision when she called him.

“I heard the news,” Garcia-Flores quoted the 25-year-old Pemberton as saying. “I’m very happy.”

Meeting Pemberton in detention a few days ago, she said he had expressed his willingness to apologise to the Laude family, even belatedly.

Roque, who once served as a lawyer for the Laude family, said the presidential pardon would mean the immediate release of Pemberton from detention.

“The president has erased the punishment that should be imposed on Pemberton. What the president did not erase was the conviction of Pemberton. He’s still a killer,” Roque said.

Last week, the regional trial court in Olongapo, which handled Pemberton’s case, ordered authorities to release him early from detention for good conduct, but Laude’s family appealed against the order, blocking the marine’s early release. Roque said the Department of Justice was planning to block Pemberton’s early release with a separate appeal.

The court order rekindled perceptions that US military personnel who fall foul of Philippine laws can get special treatment under the allies’ visiting forces agreement (VFA), which provides the legal framework for temporary visits by US forces to the country for large-scale combat exercises.

Pemberton, an anti-tank missile operator from New Bedford, Massachusetts, was one of thousands of US and Philippine military personnel who participated in joint exercises in the country in 2014.

He and a group of other marines were on leave after the exercises and met Laude and her friends at a bar in Olongapo, a city known for its nightlife, outside Subic Bay, a former US navy base.

Laude was later found dead in a motel room where witnesses said she and Pemberton had checked in. A witness told investigators that Pemberton said he had choked Laude after discovering she was transgender.

In December 2015, a judge convicted Pemberton of homicide, not the more serious charge of murder that prosecutors sought. The Olongapo court judge said at the time that she had downgraded the charge because factors such as cruelty and treachery had not been proven.

Pemberton has been serving his sentence in a compound jointly guarded by Philippine and US security personnel at the main military camp in metropolitan Manila. The place of detention was agreed to under the terms of the VFA, although Laude’s family had demanded that he be held in an ordinary jail.

Garcia-Flores said his detention had been shortened by authorities under a Philippine law that allows the reduction of prison terms for good conduct. A lawyer for the Laude family, Virginia Suarez, said the law could not apply to Pemberton, who has been detained alone in a military camp and given other special privileges under the VFA.

The case has led to calls from some in the Philippines to end the US military presence in the country, with which Washington has a mutual defence treaty.