MANILA, Philippines - The United States yesterday said it would comply with a Philippine prosecutor’s order to produce a murder suspect and four other US Marines in the investigation into the killing of a transgender Filipino.
US embassy assistant information officer Anna Richey said the subpoena, a copy of the complaint and all supporting documents will be provided to Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton through his civilian lawyers.
“While the formal complaint process begins the preliminary investigative stage under Philippine criminal law, the service member has not yet been charged and under both US and Philippine law, suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty,” Richey said in an email to The STAR.
On Friday, under the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), the Philippine government formally delivered through diplomatic channels the subpoena for Pemberton and other US Marines allegedly involved in the death of Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude.
The prosecutor ordered the five US Marines to give depositions at a formal hearing on Tuesday after police named one of them as a suspect in the killing of Laude at a hotel in Olongapo City on Oct. 11
“The United States will continue to assist in the investigation to help ensure justice is served,” Richey said.
“This will include making the suspect, witnesses and any evidence gathered available to the Philippine authorities.”
Richey said suspect Pemberton was being held on board the USS Peleliu pending an investigation into the death of Laude.
The four other American Marines sought by prosecutors were described by the Philippine foreign affairs department Friday as witnesses.
The Department of Justice said they have under its custody a witness named “Barbie,” who reportedly saw Pemberton with Laude before the victim was found dead.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said they have placed Barbie under the government’s witness protection program.
Barbie was seen on news footage pointing to a picture of the American soldier as the last person seen with Laude.
The suspect’s picture was among those presented by the US Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) during a photo line-up of US Marines who were ashore the night Laude was killed.
The US Pacific Command had ordered Peleliu to remain at a port near Olongapo while the murder investigation was ongoing.
Police said they found the victim half-naked on the bathroom floor of a room with more than a dozen bruises, cuts and bite marks on his body.
They said the victim, who had checked in with the suspect just over an hour earlier, had died from “asphyxia by drowning.”
Police and the prosecutor named Pemberton as the primary suspect in the killing. He was attached to a North Carolina-based unit that had just taken part in joint military exercises in the Philippines.
Following the hearings, which could take days or weeks, the prosecutor can either bring criminal charges or drop the case. If Pemberton is charged with murder and convicted, he could face life in prison.
Philippine and American authorities are reportedly fast-tracking the transfer of Pemberton to a detention facility in the Philippines to allow the Peleliu to sail off.
All US warships but Peleliu that took part in the just-concluded joint naval and maritime exercises in Palawan and Zambales have already left Subic Bay after being cleared to leave.
The Philippines has said the politically charged case should not be allowed to derail longstanding defense ties between Manila and Washington, amid growing public pressure for Pemberton to be handed over to Philippine custody.
Some quarters said the quest for justice for Laude’s murder might be compromised because of the country’s defense agreement with the US.
The issue over the review of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the US following the murder, however, is different, according to deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte.
“The issue for Jennifer should be treated separately. Because the issue on the VFA and calls for its abrogation, (as well as) calls for its review should be discussed on a different level,” Valte said.
“Because we are talking about different things here, there are a lot of considerations when you talk about the review of a particular agreement that we have with another sovereign country,” she added.
And as far as the investigation on Laude’s death is going, there is a process that everyone has to follow to the letter to make sure that there are no technical aspects that are being forgotten, Valte said.
She said it would also be a disservice to Laude if prosecutors rush things and in the end lose the case because of technical flaws.
The killing occurred after the Philippines reached an agreement in March to allow the US military wider temporary access to Filipino military facilities.
American forces vacated large US military bases in the Philippines in 1992 as nationalist sentiments rose.
But Manila has sought closer defense ties in recent years in a bid to modernize its armed forces amid tense maritime disputes with China. – Aurea Calica, Evelyn Macairan, Jaime Laude