Jenny’s German boyfriend may be deported – De Lima

MANILA, Philippines - The government is considering the deportation of Marc Suselbeck, the German boyfriend of slain transgender Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude, over his “misbehavior” at Camp Aguinaldo last Wednesday, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said yesterday.

De Lima said the Bureau of Immigration (BI) was just waiting for a formal request from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for the deportation of Suselbeck.

Yesterday afternoon, the AFP said it wanted the German deported even if he had apologized for entering a restricted area at Camp Aguinaldo. Video footage also showed Suselbeck shoving a Filipino soldier guarding the premises.

“I want him to be deported and be declared an undesirable alien,” Armed Forces chief Gen. Gregorio Catapang Jr. said in a statement. “He assaulted not only a Filipino soldier but also the dignity of the country as a whole.”

Suselbeck breached security at the military facility holding suspect US Marine Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton.

“Let us remember that the admission of foreigners to our country requires them to respect the laws and authorities of our country. So that breach of security and pushing of uniformed personnel are certainly actuations of disrespect,” De Lima pointed out.

She added that such acts could even constitute criminal offenses like assault, alarm and scandal or grave coercion.

“There is certainly a ground for deportation,” she stressed.

De Lima said the BI, an attached agency of the justice department, may also initiate the proceedings since the incident was caught on video.

Should the BI issue a summary deportation order and the AFP decides to file charges, De Lima said Suselbeck would not be immediately deported to his homeland.

“The deportation would have to be suspended to give way to the criminal proceedings,” De Lima explained.

It was reported, however, that Suselbeck was set to leave the country on Sunday.

Critics described the incident at Camp Aguinaldo as “theatrics” by sympathizers of the Laude family, who are actually pushing for the abolition of the Visiting Forces Agreement that has provisions giving the US custody of the accused.

But lawyer Romel Bagares, one of the counsels of the Laude family, said the AFP is just trying to “deflect public attention from the issue.”

Bagares is a law partner of lawyer Harry Roque, who accompanied the Laude family and Suselbeck to Camp Aguinaldo in their bid to confront Pemberton, now detained in a 20-foot air-conditioned shipping container. With Jaime Laude