MANILA – Various patriotic groups are calling on Filipinos and the government to assert the Philippines’ sovereignty and jurisdiction over a U.S. marine accused of killing a 26-year old transgender inside a motel in Olongapo City in Zambales province.
Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton, of the 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, out of Camp Lejeune in North Carolina is being suspected of killing Filipino transgender Jeffrey Laude inside Celzone Lodge on October 11. Laude’s body was found inside the bathroom with his head slumped in the toilet bowl and believed to have been strangled to death.
Pemberton, who is being held onboard the USS Peleliu in Zambales, is part of the U.S. contingent holding a joint military exercises in the Philippines.
Philippine authorities and the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service are jointly investigating the murder. Three other marines who were with Pemberton before the killing are also being investigated.
Assert Sovereignty, Demand Justice
“We call on the Filipino people to assert the country’s sovereignty and jurisdiction over the case, including custody and investigation of the perpetrator, and his prosecution. We demand justice and accountability. We call for the immediate junking of the VFA and the EDCA, which are threats to the Filipino people’s liberty and security,” said Cristina Palabay, Secretary-General of the human rights group called Karapatan, referring to Visiting Forces Agreement and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement between the two countries.
She said the murder of Laude by a U.S. serviceman is the most recent vivid violation of people’s rights, a consequence, she added, of lopsided military agreements between the U.S. and the Philippines. She said the VFA and EDCA have become licenses for numerous gross transgressions, especially on the rights of Filipino women and children.
Palabay also warned that the issue of jurisdiction and custody over the case may go the way of all previous cases where criminal accountability of U.S. soldiers in Philippine territory had been exonerated under the pretext of the military agreements.
She cited that in 1987, an American serviceman stationed in the U.S. base on Olongapo City was accused in the rape of a 12-year old girl had been whisked out of the country to avoid prosecution. The child later died from sepsis because parts of a vibrator that was inserted in her vagina remained stuck for seven months.
And also the rape of a woman by U.S. Marine Daniel Smith in 2005 was the first case where a member of the U.S. military was tried, convicted and sentenced for a crime on Philippine territory. However, the local court ruling on the landmark case was overturned when Smith was secretly transferred from the Makati City Jail to the U.S. Embassy’s custody in 2006.
“In both cases, the issue of US government custody on the perpetrators from the US military was invoked,” Palabay said.
Scrap All U.S. Military Accords
Opposition lawmakers Rep. Neri Colmenares and Rep. Carlos Zarate also expressed frustration with the Aquino government for not asserting authority over Pemberton. Colmenares said Pemberton should be in the custody of the Philippine government.
“The case proves once again that concerns over the one-sidedness of the Visiting Forces Agreement (and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement are not imagined. We have seen how Filipinos can become helpless victims by U.S. military forces in our very own country under the unequal agreements like VFA and EDCA,” he said.
Zarate said the agreements must be scrapped. “This is also the reason why we are urging the Supreme Court to junk the EDCA. It is not only unconstitutional and unequal, but most importantly will subvert our justice system and sovereignty,” he said.
Justice Will Prevail
Herminio Coloma, a government spokesman, said Manila and Washington will follow the provisions of the VFA in seeking justice for Laude’s murder. The VFA contains specific provisions on the legal processes to ensure that justice will prevail, he said.
Coloma cited Article 5 of the VFA on criminal jurisdiction that the “Philippine authorities shall have jurisdiction over United States personnel with respect to offenses committed within the Philippines and punishable under the law of the Philippines.”
He said Article 5, Paragraph 6 also states that the “custody of any United States personnel over whom the Philippines is to exercise jurisdiction shall immediately reside with United States military authorities, if they so request, from the commission of the offense until completion of all judicial proceedings.”
The U.S. Embassy has confirmed that Pemberton, from New Bedford, Massachusetts, is being held onboard USS Peleliu. “The United States will continue to fully cooperate with Philippine law enforcement authorities in every aspect of the investigation,” it said in a brief statement. (Mindanao Examiner)
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