[ad_1]
Protest by the LGBTQ + organization Bahaghari y Gabriela against the granting of absolute pardon by President Rodrigo Duterte to Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton at the Boy Scout Cirle in Quezon City. The US Marine Corps soldier was convicted of manslaughter for the 2014 murder of a transgender woman Jennifer Laude in the city of Olongapo. RESEARCH PHOTO / LYN RILLON
MANILA, Philippines – In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. expressed sympathy for former US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton and defended President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to grant the American absolute pardon, saying it was right and fair. .
The clemency demonstrated who the true friends and enemies of the United States are in the Philippines, Locsin said.
The country’s top diplomat said Pemberton “was not powerful” and had been abandoned by his own government, despite the fact that the former Navy spear corporal remained in US custody while serving his 10-year sentence for killing the Filipino transsexual Jennifer Laude in October 2014.
“Everyone had abandoned him and I mean everyone,” Locsin said in a post on his Twitter account. “No one even asked about him from his side… He will go home unwelcome, except possibly among his own. The reality of an unequal society ”.
‘Rabid anti-Americans’
He was reacting to an Inquirer report that cited Vice President Leni Robredo and called the pardon “one of the many cases in which the government favors the powerful.”
Robredo had questioned whether Duterte’s decision was fair and just in light of the thousands of Filipinos who languish in jail for far lesser crimes but do not receive similar attention from the president.
Locsin retweeted another report that quoted Senator Christopher “Bong” Go, Duterte’s former aide, as saying that no one could question the president’s judgment.
“There you go. Only rabid anti-Americans look bad in an act of justice and justice. Now the United States knows who its friends are and who its implacable enemies are in the Philippines, ”said the Foreign Secretary.
Transgender and human rights groups and opposition leaders denounced the clemency as an affront to Philippine sovereignty and the subordination of the Duterte administration to the United States.
It was Locsin who first revealed on Monday that the president had decided to grant Pemberton clemency. Duterte later said that the country “did not treat him [Pemberton] justly ”and that his“ good character ”must be presumed and credited.
Pemberton’s lawyers had argued that he had more than served the sentence when his good behavior was taken into account. The Olongapo City Regional First Instance Court (RTC) that convicted him in November 2015 agreed and ordered Pemberton’s release.
RTC ruling
In another tweet, Locsin indicated that Duterte was initially against the RTC ruling.
Locsin said the president “simply chose to withdraw his objection to the court’s presumption in favor of the accused.”
“He will receive criticism for a government decision, for example, to let the prisoner go for the time served under observation and presumption of good behavior during detention,” he added.
In a television interview on Wednesday, Attorney General Menardo Guevarra said he was “a little taken aback” and surprised when the president informed him on Monday of the clemency, as the Justice Department filed a motion to reconsider the RTC order to release Pemberton. .
“It was a bit uncomfortable for me to question his personal judgment after hearing what he said, which I did not find objectionable anyway,” Guevarra said.
The head of the Bureau of Immigration (BI), Jaime Morente, said that he had asked the director of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), Gerald Bantag, to hand Pemberton over to immigration authorities after his release from prison for that their deportation and their immediate departure from the country could be organized.
On September 16, 2015, the office’s board of commissioners issued a summary deportation order against Pemberton for being an “undesirable alien.”
An apology letter
Rowena García-Flores, the American’s lawyer, said the American had been drafting a letter of apology that he planned to deliver to the Laude family before his departure. “She is still composing. [the letter]. I don’t know what he will say, ”Flores said in a text message to the Inquirer.
She said Pemberton will not face court martial or any legal process in the United States.
Suarez previously regretted that Pemberton had not apologized to the family while in detention. The apology “would have simply shown his good manners and his correct conduct,” he had said.
Forgiving Pemberton was an “injustice not only to Jennifer and her family, but a grave injustice to the Filipino people,” Suarez said.
—With reporting from Tina G. Santos and Joanna Rose Aglibot
Read next
EDITOR’S SELECTION
MOST READ
Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer and more than 70 other titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download from 4am and share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.
For comments, complaints or inquiries, please contact us.
[ad_2]
