{"id":267578,"date":"2020-09-03T06:38:17","date_gmt":"2020-09-03T10:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=267578"},"modified":"2020-09-03T06:38:17","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T10:38:17","slug":"court-order-on-pemberton-act-of-judicial-overreach-roque","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/09\/03\/court-order-on-pemberton-act-of-judicial-overreach-roque\/","title":{"rendered":"Court order on Pemberton act of \u2018judicial overreach\u2019: Roque"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Roque said the order of Olongapo City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 74 for the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) to release Pemberton set a \u201cvery bad\u201d precedent. (File photo: Presidential Photo via PNA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The decision of an Olongapo court to allow the early release of United States (US) Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton is an act of \u201cjudicial overreach,\u201d Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Roque said the order of Olongapo City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 74 for the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) to release Pemberton set a \u201cvery bad\u201d precedent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt turns out\u00a0na ang desisyon po ng hukuman ay labag po o<\/em>\u00a0(that the court\u2019s decision is a violation of or) contrary to the recommendation made by the Bureau of Corrections,\u201d Roque said in a virtual press conference.<\/p>\n

In a decision dated September 1, Olongapo RTC Branch 74 Presiding Judge Roline Ginez- Jabalde ruled that Pemberton has a total accumulated time served with entitlement of Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) of 10 years, one month, and 10 days.<\/p>\n

Ginez-Jabalde said Pemberton has already served a jail time that is \u201cmore than the 10 years maximum penalty imposed by this court and affirmed by Court of Appeals\u201d.<\/p>\n

Roque, however, said the decision on granting GCTA is an \u201cexecutive function\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo\u00a0ang ginawa po ni<\/em>\u00a0judge\u00a0na siya na ang nag-desisyon kung paano siya bibigyan ng<\/em>\u00a0(the judge\u2019s action deciding on giving) credit for good conduct is an instance of judicial overreach),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque added that it was unnecessary to order the early release of Pemberton because the court\u2019s decision is \u201cnot yet final and executory\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a separate statement, the Department of Justice said Pemberton cannot walk free yet, pending a court\u2019s resolution on the motion for reconsideration filed by Filipino transgender woman Jennifer Laude, who was killed by the US marine in 2014.<\/p>\n

On October 11, 2014, Laude was found dead inside a bathroom of a motel in Olongapo City after a night out with Pemberton.<\/p>\n

Pemberton in December 2015 was sentenced to imprisonment ranging from six to 10 years for his admission of killing Laude.<\/p>\n

Roque, who once served as the private legal counsel for the Laude family, said it was unfortunate that the court authorized the release of Pemberton for his supposed good behavior.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi pupwede na trinato na parang hayop ang mga kababayan natin, tapik lang sa kamay ang parusa<\/em>\u00a0(It\u2019s unacceptable that he treated our fellow countrymen as an animal, and yet, the punishment is like you just tap his hand),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Impact on VFA<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pemberton\u2019s case was revived when President Rodrigo Duterte decided to abrogate the Philippines\u2019 Visiting Forces Agreement with the US.<\/p>\n

It was on February 11 this year when the Philippines informed the US about its decision to revoke the VFA, a military deal inked in 1998 to allow American troops who are participating in joint military drills to go to Manila sans passport and visa.<\/p>\n

The VFA remains in effect after Duterte ordered on June 1 the suspension of VFA abrogation \u201cin light of political and other developments in the region\u201d.<\/p>\n

Roque said the court\u2019s decision on Pemberton\u2019s case would have an impact on VFA, emphasizing that the death of Laude is \u201csymbolic of the death of Philippine sovereignty\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cDahil ang desisyon ni Presidente ay tapusin na itong<\/em>\u00a0VFA\u00a0na ito, ito po ang tunay na pagbibigay ng katarungan kay<\/em>\u00a0Jennifer Laude (The President\u2019s decision is to terminate VFA, and this means we are seeing justice served in Jennifer Laude\u2019s case),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The decision of an Olongapo court to allow the early release of United States (US) Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":253412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267578"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267580,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267578\/revisions\/267580"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}