Four US Marines are in the Philippines for their first court appearance at the Olongapo Regional Trial Court next week in connection with the murder case against fellow serviceman Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton, the main suspect in the killing of Filipino transgender Jennifer Laude.
The servicemen met with Philippine prosecutors in a day-long closed-door conference yesterday at the Department of Justice to review the sworn statements they had earlier executed in connection with the case, Undersecretary Jose Justiniano said.
Olongapo City Chief Prosecutor Emilie Fe Delos Santos said late yesterday afternoon that the Marines included a superior officer and Pemberton’s three liberty buddies during their night out in October last year.
From US Marine Corpos
The Marines, who came from the US Marine Corpos base in North Carolina, are set to take the witness stand on May 18 and 19. They were identified as Sgt. Daniel Pulido, a Marine of Ecuadorian descent, Lance Cpl. Bennett Dahl, and the two other Marines who Pemberton reportedly told about the incident—Cpl. Jairn Rose and Sgt. Christopher Miller.
If the two hearing dates will not be enough, the witnesses would again be called to the stand on May 25 and 26, said Delos Santos.
Like Pemberton, the soldiers came to the Philippines for rest and recreation aboard the USS Peleliu in October last year. The discovery of the slain Laude at an Olongapo City lodging house on Oct. 11, 2014 led to Pemberton’s arrest and detention, though he is still under US
custody.
Pulido, Dahl and Rose were with Pemberton when they got off their ship. Miller is a watchman who was left aboard the ship on the night of the incident.
Testify
Justiniano said the witnesses could testify to Pemberton’s presence at Ambyanz Disco in Olongapo City, where he was said to have a companion.
“They (soldiers and Pemberton) were just together at the Ambyanz Disco bar, and they saw Pemberton and another person,” said Justiniano, who was appointed supervising DOJ official on the case.
“They do not know (the person who was with Pemberton). All they said was that he was with another person who looked like a woman. And then they returned to the ship because they had a curfew,” the official told reporters on Friday.
At the conference led by Delos Santos on Friday, a US military lawyer assisted the Marines.
Asked whether the witnesses might also be asked to establish the identity of Laude as Pemberton’s companion when they testify, Justiniano said: “Maybe if they show them a photograph.”
Justiniano said the Marines came to the Philippines specifically for the trial, as part of US obligations under the Visiting Forces Agreement.
During the case conference the American witnesses were asked “to clarify what they had said in their sworn affidavits,” he added.
“But their statements will no longer change. Of course, they are not used to appearing in a trial. I asked them if they have ever appeared in court and they said ‘not yet’,” he said.
During the hearing on April 28, Laude’s family asked for P200 million in civil damages for their loved one’s death.