(11 Sep 2020) Dozens of protesters marched to the Philippine Commission on Human Rights compound in Manila on Friday to denounce the president's act of giving absolute pardon to a US Marine this week.
The surprise move by the president will free Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton from imprisonment for the 2014 killing of a transgender Filipino woman that sparked anger in the former American colony.
President Rodrigo Duterte said he pardoned him because the Marine was not treated fairly after opponents blocked his early release for good conduct in detention.
A left-wing 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 term of six to 10 years for the killing of Jennifer Laude, a transgender woman, in a motel in Olongapo city north west of Manila.
Pemberton's lawyer, Rowena Garcia-Flores, told The Associated Press that Pemberton was already 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 expressed his willingness to apologise to the Laude family.
Laude's family denounced Duterte's action as a grave injustice, including to the LGBTQ community, family lawyer Virginia Suarez said.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, who once served as a lawyer for the Laude family, said the presidential pardon would mean the immediate release of Pemberton from detention.
Last week the Regional Trial Court in Olongapo city, which handled Pemberton's case, ordered authorities to release him early from detention for good conduct, but Laude's family appealed, blocking the Marine's early release.
The court order rekindled perceptions that American military personnel who run afoul of Philippine laws can get special treatment under the allies' Visiting Forces Agreement, 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 American 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, her head slumped in a toilet bowl in a motel room, where witnesses said she and Pemberton had checked in.
A witness told investigators that Pemberton said he choked Laude after discovering she was transgender.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
