Pemberton case: Review of pardon, parole laws urged

MANILA, Philippines — US Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton’s impending release after being granted absolute pardon by President Rodrigo Duterte is a “huge, final blow” to both Jennifer Laude’s family and the LGBTQ community, a human rights lawyer said on Thursday.

It is likewise a brutal wake-up call to review the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) law and the institutions that guard the process of awarding executive clemency, Rommel Alim Abitria, Ateneo de Manila University law professor, told the Inquirer on Thursday.

“Even though the executive clemency is legal and technically right, I don’t think the consequences of the crime have already been resolved,” said Abitria, who is also the founder of Humanitarian Legal Assistance Foundation. “Until now the needs of the stakeholders have been shelved because of the crime he has committed.”

Pemberton, a US Marine convicted of homicide over the brutal death of Jennifer Laude, is set to walk free after serving only five years in a 10-year homicide sentence following an absolute pardon granted by the President.

Before he was pardoned, however, an Olongapo court ordered him released under the auspices of the GCTA law—a critical part of the “progressive imprisonment system that … incentivizes convicts for good conduct inside prison,” Abitria said.

The court decision set off a firestorm of criticism, as only the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) or the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, as well as provincial and municipal wardens may compute allowances under Republic Act No. 10592, Abitria noted.

Of course, the GCTA debate was rendered moot with President Duterte’s abrupt pardon, a constitutional power that cannot be revoked nor questioned, Abitria said.

Unique case

In Pemberton’s case, however, his camp claims not to have applied for executive clemency, begging the question of how a US serviceman came to enjoy the privilege of a presidential pardon while thousands of poor but deserving inmates languished in jails.

“There’s no question to it because this is a constitutional mandate and we cannot tell the President he is wrong,” Abitria said.

When the President, as the highest representative of the people, forgives a crime, “the entire Republic of the Philippines forgives the crime, too,” Abitria said.

On Thursday, Director General Gerald Bantag, the chief of the BuCor which has official custody over Pemberton, signed his release order. Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque believes that President Duterte gave an absolute pardon to Pemberton with a “higher national interest” in mind.

Roque said he believed that the President was driven to grant the pardon with the goal of ensuring Filipinos’ priority access to a US-made vaccine against the new coronavirus.

“In this pandemic, let us not forget that only four countries are developing vaccines. We have noticed that the President gave emphasis on a vaccine. This decision—although this is my personal opinion—that granting a pardon to Pemberton is part of the President’s desire that if America develops a vaccine, Filipinos should also benefit from it,” he said at a press briefing.