{"id":268278,"date":"2020-09-10T07:49:43","date_gmt":"2020-09-10T11:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=268278"},"modified":"2020-09-10T07:49:43","modified_gmt":"2020-09-10T11:49:43","slug":"prrd-may-have-pardoned-pemberton-for-natl-interest-roque","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/09\/10\/prrd-may-have-pardoned-pemberton-for-natl-interest-roque\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD may have pardoned Pemberton for nat’l interest: Roque"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: US Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton mugshot (Photo courtesy of Olongapo City Police)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte may have pardoned US Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton \u201cin pursuit of a higher national interest\u201d, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

In a virtual presser, Roque said he was not surprised that Pemberton, who killed Filipino transgender woman Jennifer Laude in 2014, was pardoned since Duterte may have a good reason behind it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi na po ako nasorpresa, sa totoo lang po. Bakit po? Kasi alam ko po na mayroong mas mataas o mas<\/em>\u00a0importanteng national interest\u00a0na kinakailangang pangalagaan ng Presidente<\/em>\u00a0(I wasn\u2019t surprised to be honest. Why? Because I know there may be a greater or more important national interest that the President has to protect),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque used to be lawyer of the Laude family.<\/p>\n

He guessed that Duterte granted absolute pardon to Pemberton so the country could get access to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccines from the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cSa tingin ko naman, itong desisyon nga ni Presidente \u2013 ito ay personal na opinyon ko dahil tinanong mo ang aking<\/em>\u00a0personal\u00a0na opinyon \u2018no \u2013 ang pagbibigay ng pardon kay<\/em>\u00a0Pemberton\u00a0ay kabahagi ng pagnanais ni Presidente na kapag mayroon na ngang vaccine na na<\/em>-develop\u00a0kung sa<\/em>\u00a0America\u00a0man ay makikinabang din ang Pilipinas<\/em>\u00a0(I think the President\u2019s decision\u2014this is just a personal opinion because you asked for my personal opinion\u2014pardoning Pemberton is part of the President\u2019s desire to get a vaccine from America if they develop one),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque said if Duterte\u2019s decision to pardon Pemberton would mean that all Filipinos would be given a vaccine that the US would develop, \u201cwala po akong problema diyan<\/em>\u00a0(I have no problem with that).\u201d<\/p>\n

Roque said accepting Duterte\u2019s decision did not mean that Laude\u2019s death was swept under the rug.<\/p>\n

Roque said although he would have wanted Pemberton to serve his maximum penalty, Laude\u2019s death was not denied of justice because the American soldier was detained and had to pay the Laude family PHP4.6 million in civil damages.<\/p>\n

\u201cNakamit po ang katarungan. Wala po tayong ibinayad kahit ano<\/em>\u00a0(We obtained justice. We didn\u2019t have to pay for anything to get it),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He reiterated that Laude\u2019s murder is the \u201csymbolic death\u201d of the country\u2019s sovereignty.<\/p>\n

He said the President has the constitutional power to grant executive clemency.<\/p>\n

\u201cIyan po ang pinaka-<\/em>presidential of all presidential functions. So\u00a0wala pong kahit sinong pupuwedeng magkuwestiyon niyan<\/em>\u00a0(That is the most presidential of all presidential functions. So nobody can question it),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Roque also denied claims that Duterte\u2019s decision to grant Pemberton a pardon meant that he could not stand up to foreign powers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi naman po totoo iyan dahil nanindigan naman po ang Presidente noong tinerminate po niya iyong<\/em>\u00a0VFA (That\u2019s not true because he was firm in his decision to terminate the VFA). To me, I think, you can accuse the President of everything else except for being subservient to any foreign power,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kim and Trump<\/strong><\/p>\n

Asked if pardoning Pemberton\u2019s pardon was discussed in a phone conversation between Duterte and outgoing US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim last Monday, Roque said it may be a possibility.<\/p>\n

Duterte and Kim had a phone conversation just before Roque confirmed that the President granted Pemberton absolute pardon.<\/p>\n

\u201cPosible\u00a0po at ang tingin ko hindi lang sa pagpupulong iyan ni Presidente sa dating<\/em>\u00a0Ambahador ng Amerika kung hindi iyong kaniyang<\/em>\u00a0telephone conversation with President (Donald) Trump (It\u2019s possible and I think that it was not only brought up during the meeting with the former Ambassador but also his telephone conversation with President Trump),\u201d he said without indicating when the phone conversation with Trump took place.<\/p>\n

Roque said he was not privy to the details of the phone conversation and asked the public to \u201ctrust the wisdom of the President.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTingin ko po<\/em>, consistent\u00a0pa rin kaming dalawa ni Presidente na kinakailangan kaibigan ang lahat, walang kalaban na kahit sinuman<\/em>\u00a0(I think the President and I are consistent in believing that we should be friend to all and enemy to none),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said Duterte’s decision to abrogate the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) remains despite pardoning the American soldier.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe abrogation has been suspended but the decision has not been changed,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte may have pardoned US Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton \u201cin pursuit of a higher national …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":49989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268278","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268278"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268279,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268278\/revisions\/268279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}