Filipino’s murder revives debate about US presence
Print Edition
INSIDE a funeral parlor, a Filipino mother sits and weeps next to a coffin containing the body of her daughter and demands answers. On a hulking American assault ship moored at a nearby port sits a man who might have them — a US Marine authorities suspect in the brutal slaying at a cheap hotel more than a week ago.
US authorities are cooperating in the investigation, and have ordered the ship to stay at the Subic Bay Freeport, about 80 kilometers northwest of Manila, until it is completed.
The killing of Jennifer Laude, a 26-year-old transgender Filipino, has sparked public anger in the Philippines and revived a debate over the US military presence there.
Philippine police have identified the suspect as US Marine Pfc Joseph Scott Pemberton. He was on leave in the city of Olongapo when Laude was found dead.
Philippine police said Laude met Pemberton at the Ambyanz, an Olongapo disco bar, in the late hours of October 11.
At one point, they left friends at the bar and checked in at a nearby motel and got a room beside the reception desk.
About 30 minutes later, Pemberton walked out. A housekeeper entered the room to find Laude’s body, partly wrapped in bedsheet, in the bathroom. She had apparently been drowned in the toilet, according to police Chief Inspector Gil Domingo.
On Friday, Philippine authorities served a subpoena at the US Embassy for Pemberton and four other Marines, sought as witnesses, to appear today before prosecutors in Olongapo in a preliminary investigation.
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