US envoy decries Laude kin ‘theatrics’

U.S. Ambassador Philip S. Goldberg. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines—Stressing that the “rule of law” should always be observed, US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg on Thursday said he was disappointed about the breach of security in the Philippine military headquarters by the German boyfriend and the elder sister of the slain transgender Filipino Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude on Wednesday.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines is filing a complaint against German Marc Sueselbeck for assaulting a Filipino soldier after climbing over the fence and jumping into the compound of the Joint US Military Assistance Group (Jusmag) at Camp Aguinaldo.

Sueselbeck, boyfriend of Jennifer Laude, who was killed in a motel in Olongapo City on the night of Oct. 11 allegedly by a US Marine, faces deportation.

Sueselbeck, however, is ready to face the consequences of his actions, they said.

Speaking to reporters in Olongapo City on Thursday, Sueselbeck, who works as an accountant in Germany, admitted his error.

“It was not right. It was disrespectful toward the Philippine authorities,” he said.

He explained that he followed Marilou into the Jusmag compound after hearing the soldiers saying something not nice about her.

“It was a spur of the moment decision and we already apologized to the military guards,” Marilou Laude said.

“I did not intend to offend the military. I did it because I just wanted to negotiate with them about showing the suspect to us,” Sueselbeck said. “My intention was not to mess with them. It was a decision at that very moment and I did not think of it carefully.”

Told that the military was going to file a complaint against him in the German Embassy, Sueselbeck said he found that “weird” because he and some camp officials had talked and settled the matter before he and the Laudes left the camp.

“We already apologized. What more can I do?” he said.

He said he would leave the matter to the lawyers of the Laude family. He said he was flying back to Germany on Sunday but he would return to the Philippines for Pemberton’s trial.

Goldberg, speaking on an early morning television program on Thursday, made it clear that Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton of the US Marine Corps, who is facing a murder complaint in the Olongapo City Prosecutor’s Office for the killing of Laude, is detained at Jusmag.

“You have our word on it,” Goldberg said, adding that AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Pio Catapang and Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) Commission Executive Director Eduardo Oban were present when Pemberton was transferred there on Wednesday from the USS Peleliu in Subic Bay Freeport.

Media circuses

“I think what happened yesterday at Camp Aguinaldo … where intruders actually got inside an AFP military base, were able to enter, were able to get into a restricted area is very disappointing, quite frankly,” Goldberg said.

He underscored the importance for all to focus “on making sure the rule of law is followed to make sure that justice is served, justice for the family, justice for Jennifer Laude.”

“We are to have that as our goal, not media circuses and the kind of things and acts that took place yesterday,” Goldberg said.

Jusmag incident

Accompanied by lawyer Harry Roque and a throng of reporters and television cameramen, Sueselbeck and Laude’s sister Marilou marched to Camp Aguinaldo on Wednesday afternoon and managed to come close to the Jusmag compound and demanded to be let in so they could see Pemberton, who was placed in a 28-cubic-meter, air-conditioned freight container with grilled windows there.

When Filipino guards refused to open the gate, Marilou Laude climbed over the fence, lept into the compound and argued with the guards over seeing Pemberton.

Sueselbeck followed and shoved a guard who tried to stop him.

The AFP will file a complaint against Sueselbeck in the German Embassy and the Bureau of Immigration.

In a statement issued yesterday, the AFP said Sueselbeck violated Presidential Decree No. 1227, the law punishing unlawful entry into any military base in the Philippines.

“[Sueselbeck] forcefully shoved [a] soldier after climbing the perimeter fence,” the AFP said.

The soldier has undergone medical checkup, it said, adding that a detailed report on the intrusion will be submitted to the German Embassy.

The report will be coursed through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), it said.

Military bases law

Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc, chief of the AFP Public Affairs Office, said the law does not discriminate between local or foreign intruders.

“It should be a lesson to every foreign national who visits the Philippines—you obey our laws,” Cabunoc said.

But Roque and another lawyer of the Laude family, Romel Regalado Bagares, said Cabunoc was mistaken.

In a statement, they said that PD 1227 applies to a person “who, without expressed or implied permission or authority of the base commander or his duly authorized representatives, shall reenter or is found within any military base after having been removed therefrom and ordered not to reenter by the base commander or his duly authorized representatives.”

They said Sueselbeck and members of the Laude family were allowed into Camp Aguinaldo.

Facing deportation

Expecting to receive a complaint against Sueselbeck, the immigration bureau said the German faced deportation.

“If what he did in Camp Aguinaldo can be considered an undesirable act, he would be properly charged for deportation,” Immigration Commissioner Siegfred Mison said in a telephone interview yesterday.

“We have yet to receive any information, although we already heard some reports … that he caused a commotion at the camp. We have to wait for the transmittal of the incident report,” Mison said.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the actions of Sueselbeck and Marilou Laude were “unnecessary.”

“We can commiserate with their grief over the loss of a loved one, but those acts, they’re unnecessary. I understand that they’re angry because of what happened, but to go to such extent, there’s already a break of security, and Camp Aguinaldo is a military camp—you do not just barge in,” De Lima said.

There were reports that Marilou Laude may also be facing charges, but De Lima said: “Let’s just see. We just have to be careful about that. It’s not enough that the Laude camp should not be doing such moves.”

In Malacañang, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said that the Palace understood “the kind of emotion” brought about by Laude’s death.

But he said the AFP headquarters, which also houses the office of the secretary of national defense, had regulations. He stressed the need to follow rules enforced in restricted places such as Camp Aguinaldo.

Just wanted to see suspect

In an interview hours after the incident, Marilou Laude said her family just wanted to see Pemberton.

“He was inside the [freight container]. How hard would it have been for them to just show him to us, even from behind the gate?” she said.

Laude’s other sister, Michelle, said one of the guards told them: “He’s not here anymore.”

She said she was annoyed at the guards’ laughing at them from afar.

One of the family’s lawyer, Virgie Suarez, said the camp commander, Brig. Gen. Arthur Ang, promised to give the Laudes a photograph of Pemberton inside his makeshift detention cell.

Ang had yet to produce the photograph as of yesterday, Suarez said.

“We asked the [guards] if they had personally seen Pemberton. They all said no, including [Ang],” she said.

Despite Pemberton’s transfer to Camp Aguinaldo, the US Embassy said he remained to be under its custody in accordance with the bilateral Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

PH-US arrangement

Explaining Pemberton’s transfer, Goldberg said the arrangement was made by him and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and they made sure this “would suit the interest of justice, follow the VFA and do it in a way that was sensitive to the interest and needs of both sides, the needs of the Filipino public to know that a suspect is here in the Philippines.”

“So we try to be respectful of all things concerned and this was the way forward that we thought was best to suit the interest of both sides and to protect the rights of the US serviceman,” Goldberg said.

Asked whether the embassy would allow Laude’s family to see Pemberton, Goldberg said that under the VFA, the responsibility of the United States was to make the suspect available for the trial.

“That’s our responsibility and that’s what we’ll follow. We’ll follow the rule of law. We’re not going to engage in theatrics,” he said.

Asked whether the United States would grant the planned bid of the Philippines to seek custody of Pemberton once a court issued a warrant for his arrest, Goldberg reiterated that the American side would follow the VFA.

“I don’t want to say what we can or can’t do. What I’m saying is we’ll follow the VFA. That we can. And we have the suspect in US custody,” he said.

Asked about the clamor for Pemberton to appear in the next hearing of the preliminary investigation at the Olongapo City Prosecutor’s Office set on Oct. 27, Goldberg said the suspect would get advice from his lawyer and follow it. With reports from D. Cynthia Balana, Nikko Dizon, Tina G. Santos, Jerome C. Aning and Jaymee T. Gamil in Manila and Allan Macatuno, Inquirer Central Luzon

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