Duterte grants absolute pardon to Pemberton

MANILA, Philippines — The US serviceman convicted of homicide for killing a transgender in Olongapo six years ago is now a free man.

Saying the serviceman has been treated unfairly, President Duterte yesterday granted absolute pardon to US Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton, who was convicted in 2015 for the death of Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude in 2014.

Speaking last night at Malacañang, Duterte said he had talked with Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra about Pemberton’s case.

“I told them earlier, it’s my decision to pardon. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s how I viewed the case,” Duterte said in a meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases. “We have not treated Pemberton fairly. So I released him. Pardon.”

He added: “When there is a time that you are called to be fair, be fair. Be fair.”

Duterte said Pemberton deserved to be credited with good conduct since there was no report of him misbehaving while in prison.

“The Marines could have reported otherwise to the secretary of justice, to the police… that he was shouting like a drunken man,” Duterte said. “But the presumption is, since there wqere no such reports, then the man did not do anything wrong. In fairness, the computation is finished, he was recommended to be released, then release him.”

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, who served as a lawyer for the Laude family, said there is no need to explain why the President made the decision. Roque noted that the grant of pardon is “one of the most presidential of all presidential powers.”

“He (Pemberton) can now go home because he has been granted pardon,” Roque said.

“There is no need for the President to cite reasons for doing so because the grant of pardon and parole is not within the power of the judiciary. It is within the power of the executive,” he added in Filipino.

Roque said the grant of absolute pardon means that there are no more issues on whether Pemberton is entitled to good conduct time allowance or whether the GCTA law applies to him since he was not jailed in the national penitentiary.

The President has effectively erased the punishment that was supposed to be slapped on Pemberton, the Palace spokesman said.

Roque however clarified that the pardon did not erase Pemberton’s conviction

“What the President did not erase was the conviction of Pemberton. He is still a murderer. But the additional punishments were erased by the President,” Roque said.

Asked whether he thinks Duterte’s decision was inconsistent with his sentiments against the US, Roque said the President is not anti-US but is only pushing for an independent foreign policy, which regards everyone as friends.

Earlier yesterday, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. announced Duterte’s pardon of Pemberton in a tweet.

“Cutting matters short over what constitutes time served, and since where he was detained was not in the prisoner’s control—and to do justice—the President has granted an absolute pardon to Pemberton. Here at the Palace,” Locsin said.

The pardon came barely a week after an Olongapo City court granted a motion of Pemberton’s camp for his early release for good behavior, under the GCTA law.

Laude’s family filed a motion for reconsideration with the court to stop Pemberton’s release. The Department of Justice (DOJ) said it would file its own MR.

Justice chief consulted

But yesterday, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said he was consulted by President Duterte before he made the decision to grant Pemberton absolute pardon.

Guevarra said Duterte exercised his plenary powers when he decided to pardon Pemberton.

“Pardon is an act of grace on the part of the Chief Executive. He may exercise this plenary power of executive clemency at any time and under any circumstance,” he said.

Pemberton’s lawyer Rowena Flores said in an interview over dzBB that she did not expect President Duterte to pardon her client. Flores also denied that there was political horse-trading.

They would now be preparing to meet the requirements set by the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) and the Bureau of Immigration (BI) for the release of Pemberton, she said.

Early this month, Olongapo City Regional Trial Court Branch 74 said Pemberton may be released because he had already served the 10 years maximum of his penalty. The American serviceman has served 2,142 days or more than five years and eight months in prison but he was credited with GCTA of 1,548 days.

Roque previously said the court’s decision to allow Pemberton’s release constituted “judicial overreach,” even calling Laude’s death “symbolic of the death of Philippine sovereignty.”

Sen. Francis Pangilinan said the pardon was meant to divert the public’s attention from the administration’s deplorable pandemic response.

“The questionable and highly controversial pardon helps to redirect and divert the public’s attention away from the incompetent, corrupt, and failing COVID campaign,” Pangilinan said.

On the other hand, a lawyer of Laude family said Duterte’s decision could be part of a deal with the US government.

“As a lawyer of the Laude family, secretary general of the Kilusan and chairperson of Kaisa Ka, we condemn the statement of Duterte giving absolute pardon to Pemberton, an American soldier who committed an atrocious crime to a transwoman like Jennifer Laude,” said Virginia Lacsa Suarez.

“Goodness I am shocked. There are many thoughts running through my mind. What is happening? Is this a joke? Are we just playing moro-moro? Has Pemberton already left? Is that why he was given absolute pardon to give legal color or to justify that he is no longer here?”

She said Pemberton’s release only showed that the Philippines is still beholden to the United States and that it could be one of the conditions for the delivery of $2 billion worth of attack helicopters and ammunition or for the return of US to Subic to take over Hanjin Shipyard.

Visit to Pemberton’s cell

After yesterday morning’s hearing at the Olongapo RTC Branch 74 on the motion for reconsideration filed by Laude camp last week, her family expressed interest to see Pemberton in person. Suarez also said she had voiced intention to contest before the Supreme Court the RTC’s order for the release of the American convict.

She lamented that President Duterte’s order to grant absolute pardon to Pemberton took away from the DOJ the chance to question the decision of Judge Roline Ginez Jabalde.

“This is disappointing. We could have fixed it. This could have served a lesson” in case a similar incident happens in the future, Suarez added.

“The signs had been there all along — the President’s turnaround on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.’s statements on renewed cooperation between the US and Philippine Armed Forces in the South China Sea, and even a sale of US helicopters to the Philippines,” CenterLaw said.

“And the price we had to pay, among other things, is the freedom for Mr. Pemberton, and the violation of the rights of poor Filipinos like Jeffrey Laude, who are deemed insignificant in the scale of things,” it said.

Earlier yesterday, lawyer Suarez said the Olongapo City court has directed BuCor to double check if Pemberton was really qualified for early release under the GCTA. — Evelyn Macairan, Paolo Romero, Bebot Sison Jr., Ralph Edwin Villanueva

Related video: