Pemberton’s arraignment for murder set

Joseph Scott Pemberton. Photo from Olongapo City Police

MANILA, Philippines—The scheduled arraignment of US Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton for murder will push through on Monday after the Department of Justice (DOJ) junked his motion for reconsideration seeking the dismissal of the case for lack of merit.

In a nine-page resolution released yesterday afternoon, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said an assessment of the records of this case shows that even in the absence of the purported additional evidence, a finding of probable cause for murder can be maintained against the respondent.

A murder case is now pending at the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court Branch 74 against Pemberton for the death of Filipino transgender woman Jennifer Laude.

“We reviewed the facts and the procedural backdrop of this case vis-à-vis the arguments in the motion for reconsideration and found no sufficient justification to reverse, alter or modify the Resolution dated Jan. 27 2015,” the resolution read.

It said the DOJ affirms the findings of the Office of the Prosecutor (OCP) of Olongapo City on the existence of the circumstances of treachery, abuse of superior strength and cruelty, which satisfy the elements of murder.

The resolution also stated that there is sufficient evidence on record positively identifying Pemberton as the “perpetrator of the crime.”

It cited the narrations of Laude’s friend Mark Clarence C. Gelviro, also known as Barbie, who said he accompanied Laude and Pemberton to Celzone Lodge on Oct. 11, 2014, and motel cashier Elias A. Gallamos, who corroborated Gelviro’s statement and later claimed to have discovered Laude’s body.

De Lima said Pemberton’s manifestations did not controvert the factual allegations in the statements of Gelviro and Gallamos.

“It merely argued against the weight and sufficiency of their statements to support the charge against the respondent,” she said.

Pemberton, in his motion, argued that the evidence submitted after Oct. 27, 2014, should not be considered in the resolution of the case because as of that time, the OCP of Olongapo City had no authority to receive them.

De Lima said that except for this claim of the respondent, there is nothing in the records that show that the OCP of Olongapo City has declared him to have waived his rights to file his counter-affidavit on Oct. 27, 2014.

It must be stressed that such declaration of waiver, if any, was of respondent’s own doing as he refused to file a counter-affidavit on the deadline set by the OCP of Olongapo City, the resolution said.

The evidence received by the OCP of Olongapo City after Oct. 27, 2014, cannot be disregarded, the resolution said.

“They are not inadmissible. There is no rule on evidence which mandates their exclusion. They do not violate respondent’s right to due process as he had the reasonable opportunity to controvert or rebut them,” it said.

Pemberton sought the reversal of the DOJ resolution finding probable cause to charge him with murder, saying he had been denied due process.

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