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The Bureau of Immigration (BI) will implement a deportation order issued by its board of commissioners against United States Navy Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton despite the absolute pardon of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said Wednesday that the office was required to comply with the mandate to implement the summary deportation order that the BI commissioners board issued against Pemberton on September 16, 2015 for being an undesirable alien.
Pemberton was declared an undesirable alien following his conviction for the murder of transgender woman Jennifer Laude in 2015. Under the law, a convicted alien can only be deported after serving a jail sentence.
Pemberton was sentenced to 10 years in jail but only served a little over five years due to the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) approved by Section 74 of the Olongapo City Regional Court of First Instance, which also ordered their immediate release.
The Laude family and the Department of Justice (DoJ) have filed separate Motions for Reconsideration (MR) challenging Pemberton’s release order. But the subsequent presidential pardon has made the motions moot.
Morente, however, stressed that with the granting of the executive pardon to Pemberton there is no longer any legal impediment or obstacle to his departure from the Philippines.
Morente said the BI has asked the Director of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), Gerald Bantag, to hand Pemberton over to the BI the moment he is released from jail so that his deportation can be implemented and can be organized and facilitated. their immediate departure from the country.
However, he said the rotation request was only intended to allow BI to complete or terminate the deportation process that was initiated against the American convict.
Morente said it has always been standard operating procedure for the BuCor to turn over foreign BI convicts who have finished serving their prison terms for deportation back to their home country.
“In any case, we are awaiting instructions from our Secretary of Justice, Menardo Guevarra, to guide us on how we will implement the deportation order in a manner that is within the laws prescribed in the country,” he added.
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