The US Marine, Joseph Pemberton, who is accused of murdering Filipino transgender Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude, will remain in US custody despite the arrest warrant issued against him by an Olongapo City court, an official said Wednesday.
US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg said he had already notified the US Embassy in Manila of the US government’s intension to retain custody of the accused throughout the legal process.
“The Philippine government has notified us that it will request custody as it can under the Visiting Forces Agreement but we, under the Visiting Forces Agreement, can decide as we well to retain custody throughout the judicial process,” Goldberg told DzRH radio.
Malacañang said it expects the US government’s full cooperation as it seeks full custody of Pemberton.
“We certainly would expect full cooperation with the US Embassy with respect to this point,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.
But he acknowledged that the process of seeking custody of Pemberton would have to be done in accordance with the VFA.
“We formally seek custody of Mr. Pemberton but we have to go through the process within the purview of the Visiting Forces Agreement,” Lacierda said.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the Philippine government would be asserting its right to take custody of Pemberton following Goldberg’s statement.
She said Foreign Affairs officials had already started working to get sole custody of the accused through the process provided by the VFA.
“The VFA Commission and the DFA [Department of Foreign Affairs] are already working on it by talking to the US Embassy and our counterparts,” De Lima said.
Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago said she wanted Pemberton placed in a regular jail after the arrest warrant issued against him.
“Normally, any person who has been formally accused in court goes to the city jail, so he [Pemberton] should go there,” Santiago said.
“Otherwise we will be giving undue discrimination in favor of a foreign national.”
Senator Francis Escudero urged Foreign Affairs to seek custody of Pemberton.
Pemberton is accused of shoving Laude’s head into a toilet bowl inside a comfort room of the Celzone Motel in Olongapo City on Oct. 11 to drown him, and apparently after discovering he was not a woman.
Judge Roline Ginez-Jabalde of the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court Branch 74 on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant against Pemberton, a day after state prosecutors filed a murder case against the US Marine. (C/O Eagle News, MST w/ Francisco Tuyay)
