DESPITE 1-YEAR V.F.A. DEADLINE | Pemberton bid to suspend court proceedings for 2 months granted

From InterAksyon (Dec 24): DESPITE 1-YEAR V.F.A. DEADLINE | Pemberton bid to suspend court proceedings for 2 months granted

The family of murdered Filipino transgender Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude will ask the court to reconsider its decision to suspend for 60 days the proceedings against American soldier Joseph Scott Pemberton, said Atty. Harry Roque, private counsel for the Laude family.

Roque said he will file the motion for reconsideration on Jan. 5, as the courts will be closed until then.

On Tuesday, the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court granted Pemberton’s bid to suspend proceedings against him for two months pending a ruling on a petition he filed with the Justice department seeking a review of the murder charge filed over Laude' death on Oct. 11.

Branch 74 of the Olongapo court also rejected two motions filed by Roque: one, to transfer US Marine Lance Corporal Pemberton to the Olongapo city jail from his air-conditioned, special detention unit in a Jusmag van parked in a tightly guarded part of Camp Aguinaldo; and two, to allow live media coverage of the trial.

The decision to suspend proceedings, as sought by the US Marine, caught people by surprise. Media men waited all afternoon of Tuesday, but had been informed no decision was forthcoming on the petition to suspend that Pemberton filed on Monday.

In Monday’s hearing of the case, the court had said Pemberton’s motion to suspend proceedings was deemed submitted for resolution, and that a ruling might be issued when the court resumes the proceedings next year after the holiday break.

Prosecutors opposed motion to suspend

Also on Monday, both public and private prosecutors opposed the defense motion to suspend proceedings, and moved for the immediate arraignment of the accused.

Also on Monday, lawyers for Pemberton asked the DOJ in Manila to conduct a reinvestigation of the murder charges filed against him by state prosecutors before Branch 74.

The findings, said the defense, relied more on mere surmises from supposed prosecution witnesses, and the prosecution panel did not present strong evidence to show that the qualifying circumstances of murder were present in the case.

Roque earlier explained that they opposed the motion to suspend proceedings because “the filing of petition for review with the Department of Justice is not enough basis to suspend proceedings, especially in this case where we have to resolve the case only for a period of one year, as per rules of the Visiting Forces Agreement.”

He said that while both the public and private prosecutors opposed the motion to suspend proceedings, they parted ways on the issues of Pemberton’s transfer to a regular jail, and allowing the media coverage.

“We believe that under the VFA, [as] what DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima has told me, custody over the accused should be with the Philippine authorities after the issuance of warrant of arrest,” Roque said.

“The custody being exercised by the US authorities (on Pemberton) is now without basis. There is no reason (for them) to grant Pemberton special treatment to be detained in an air-conditioned container van in Camp Aguinaldo. If the Philippine senators are being detained in non-air-conditioned facilities in Camp Crame, the same treatment should befall Pemberton,” he added.

On the issue of media coverage, Roque said they argued that it is obvious that the entire Filipino people, and not only the Laude family, has a stake in this case. “Because we can see in this case how the VFA is being implemented, we can get inputs to a debate, and determine if VFA really works for our interests,” he stressed.

Roque said that if these motions are dismissed by the lower courts, they will elevate these up to the Supreme Court.

Another Laude counsel, Virgie Suarez, said in the same briefing that Public Prosecutor Emilie Fe Delos Santos made a manifestation in the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court Branch 74 seeking the inhibition of Judge Roline Ginez Jabalde. Her basis:
Jabalde and Pemberton’s counsel, Rowena Garcia-Flores, were classmates at San Beda law school.

According to Roque, Garcia-Flores admitted during the hearing to being a classmate of Jabalde. Nonetheless, Roque said, the defense lawyer opposed Delos Santos’s manifestation and filed a counter manifestation, saying that Delos Santos and the wife of Jabalde are also classmates, anyway, so “the two circumstances cancel each other out.”

Roque and Suarez, however, made it clear that while they supported the public prosecutor in seeking the inhibition of Jabalde from the case, the issue of who will hear the case does not matter much to them.

Pemberton seeks reinvestigation

Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton on Monday asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to conduct a reinvestigation of the murder charges filed against him by state prosecutors.

In a 33-page petition for review, Pemberton asked DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima to take a second look at the findings of the prosecution panel which led to the filing of the charges against him before Branch 74 of the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court (RTC).

Pemberton said the findings relied more on mere surmises from supposed prosecution witnesses, and that the panel failed to present strong evidence to show that the qualifying circumstances of murder were present in the case.

“Not only is the assailed resolution full of logical leaps and unwarranted conclusions, it also disregarded the fundamental principles pertaining to treachery as a qualifying circumstance in the crime of murder,” Pemberton said.

Also, he said, the prosecution’s resolution failed to present or show direct evidence of how the alleged attack started/commenced and executed.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/101779/despite-1-year-v-f-a--deadline--pemberton-bid-to-suspend-court-proceedings-for-2-months-granted