Rodrigo Duterte’s pardon for marine who killed transgender Filipino a ‘charade’ to keep US military in Philippines: family’s lawyer
- Law group that represented family of Jennifer Laude questions decision to pardon Joseph Scott Pemberton, who drowned her in a toilet bowl in 2014
- Centre for International Law Manila claims decision by Philippine president is ‘part of bigger deal’ involving arms sales and the South China Sea
Duterte intervened in the case on Monday, interrupting his usual coronavirus briefing to announce he was using his presidential prerogative to pardon the marine. That essentially ended the hopes of Laude’s family, who were appealing a ruling by a trial court last week that signed off on Pemberton’s early release from his 10-year sentence.
Pemberton, controversially, has been serving his sentence in a converted air-conditioned container van parked inside the Philippine military headquarters in suburban Manila rather than in a Philippine prison due to the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the two countries. The unusual arrangement was because the US Embassy feared for his life.
Duterte said that during Pemberton’s nearly five-year detention in the van, no one had kept a record of his behaviour and there was therefore no basis for calculating the allowance for good conduct. Because of this, he had decided to use his presidential prerogative to assume that the marine had behaved well during that period and pardon him.
“If there is a time when you are called upon to be fair, be fair, be fair,” he said, adding “we should allow [Pemberton] the good character presumption”.