Freed US Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton will face court martial proceedings in the United States for the brutal killing of Filipino transgender Jennifer Laude, Malacañang said Monday.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque made the statement in an online press briefing, adding US authorities had promised that Pemberton would still face court martial and possibly sentenced for his crime.
Pemberton was deported on Sunday morning and was banned from returning to the Philippines.
Roque contradicted the Laude family’s claim that President Rodrigo Duterte had promised them he would keep Pemberton in jail while he was in office.
“From what I know, the President did not make such a promise,” Roque said.
“What the President promised was that justice would prevail for the death of Jennifer Laude, and Pemberton was in fact jailed for nearly six years.”
Still, Roque assured the Laude family that Pemberton would be facing court martial proceedings in the United States.
He also claimed that Pemberton had already served his sentence here, and that Duterte had even extended financial assistance to the Laude family thrice.
Laude’s family, meanwhile, rejected the apology offered by Pemberton.
Laude’s lawyer Virgie Suarez said Pemberton’s apology, which was issued by his lawyer Rowena Garcia Flores hours before he was deported, was found by Laude’s mother, Julita, as “insincere,” while his sister Marilou said it was “too scripted” to be accepted.
In a two-paragraph statement released by Flores, Pemberton expressed his gratitude to Duterte for the absolute pardon granted him.
The pardon allowed Pemberton to be freed from detention after serving just six years of the 10-year sentence imposed by Branch 74 of the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court and upheld by the Court of Appeals.
The pardon was issued just as the Olongapo City RTC had started hearing the motion for reconsideration filed by the Laudes on its order allowing Pemberton's release after he availed himself of the good conduct time allowance.
Pemberton then extended his "most sincere sympathy" to the Laudes and expressed the "depth of his sorrow and regret" for killing Laude in October 2014.