Laudes want Pemberton to suffer ‘humiliation’ experienced by Jennifer’s fiance

By: Matikas Santos - 10 years ago

Medics attend to German national Marc Sueselbeck, fiance of slain transgender Filipino Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude, after fainting following Bureau of Immigration officials’ refusal to allow him to board his flight to Germany at Manila’s International Airport, Philippines on Sunday Oct. 26, 2014. AP

MANILA, Philippines—The family of slain transgender woman Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude want her alleged killer, United States (US) Marine Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton, to be declared an “undesirable alien” and his passport to be confiscated.

“The family has decided to file charges against Pemberton for being an undesirable alien and they will demand the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to confiscate his passport,” Harry Roque, the Laude family’s legal counsel, said in a forum Tuesday.

“They want the BI to subject him to the same humiliation that they subjected Marc Sueselbeck and they want the BI to demand Pemberton to appear before the premises of the Bi in the same way that they demanded Sueselbeck to appear,” he said.

Sueselbeck is facing charges for being an “undesirable alien” and a possible lifetime ban from entering the Philippines after he shoved a guard in Camp Aguinaldo where Pemberton is being detained.

He was supposed to fly back to Germany last Sunday but was barred from leaving the country by immigration authorities due to the complaints against him.

Pemberton has not appeared before the city prosecutor’s office in two preliminary investigation hearings, neither has he submitted a counter affidavit to the charges of murder.

Roque also complained that Pemberton has not provided DNA and fingerprint samples which would be used as bases of comparison to the semen and fingerprint specimens found at the scene of the crime.

“We want the BI to assert jurisdiction over foreign nationals. It is the BI who should be spearheading custody over him,” Roque said.

“If they cannot do this, I want them to explain to the Laude family why they’ve not accorded equal protection for these two foreigners,” he said.