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MANILA, Philippines – US Marine Lance Cpl. The imminent release of Joseph Scott Pemberton after President Rodrigo Duterte granted him full pardon is a “great final blow” to both Jennifer Laude’s family and the LGBTQ community, a human rights lawyer said Thursday.
It is also a brutal wake-up call to review the Good Conduct Time Allocation Act (GCTA) and the institutions that guard the executive clemency process, said Rommel Alim Abitria, a law professor at Ateneo de Manila University, at the Inquirer on Thursday.
“Although the executive’s pardon is legally and technically correct, I don’t think the consequences of the crime have already been solved,” said Abitria, who is also the founder of the Humanitarian Legal Assistance Foundation. “So far the needs of the stakeholders have been shelved due to the crime he has committed.”
Pemberton, a United States Marine convicted of manslaughter for the brutal death of Jennifer Laude, is set to go free after serving just five years on a 10-year murder sentence following an outright pardon from the president.
However, before he was pardoned, an Olongapo court ordered his release under the auspices of the GCTA law, a fundamental part of the “progressive incarceration system that … encourages convicts for good behavior inside the prison,” Abitria said. .
The court’s decision unleashed a storm of criticism, as only the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) or the Office of Administration of Prisons and Penology, as well as provincial and municipal guards can calculate the allowances under Republic Law No. 10592, Abitria noted.
Of course, the GCTA debate was rendered irrelevant by President Duterte’s abrupt pardon, a constitutional power that cannot be overturned or challenged, Abitria said.
Only case
In Pemberton’s case, however, his field claims not to have applied for executive clemency, raising the question of how an American serviceman came to enjoy the privilege of a presidential clemency while thousands of poor but deserving inmates languished in jails.
“There is no doubt because this is a constitutional mandate and we cannot tell the president that he is wrong,” Abitria said.
When the president, as the highest representative of the people, forgives a crime, “the entire Republic of the Philippines also forgives the crime,” Abitria said.
On Thursday, CEO Gerald Bantag, the head of BuCor, who has official custody of Pemberton, signed his release order. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque believes that President Duterte granted Pemberton an outright pardon with a “higher national interest” in mind.
Roque said he believed the president was prompted to grant clemency in order to ensure Filipinos’ priority access to a US-made vaccine against the new coronavirus.
“In this pandemic, let’s not forget that only four countries are developing vaccines. We have noticed that the president emphasized a vaccine. This decision, although it is my personal opinion, that granting a pardon to Pemberton is part of the president’s wish that if the United States develops a vaccine, the Filipinos should also benefit from it, ”he said at a press conference.
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