MANILA – The lawyer of US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton claimed that the detained American serviceman must be released from jail based on the orders of Olongapo City court.
Atty. Rowena Garcia-Flores, Pemberton’s legal counsel, said they have filed an opposition to the appeal of Jennifer Laude’s family for the court to direct Pemberton to complete his service of sentence.
“Dapat po sana immediate ang pag-release kay Pemberton kasi po sabi po ng korte 40 days na po siyang lampas sa pag-serve niya ng 10-year sentence kaya po every day na tumatagal siya sa kulungan wala na pong basis ‘yun,” Flores told DZBB.
Flores added that Pemberton was entitled to the benefits of the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) law because homicide is not a heinous crime.
“Ang importante lang po mabuti siyang prisoner,” Flores said. “Wala po siyang nakakaaway, walang binubugbog, walang pinapatay. Isolation na nga po siya eh, solitary confinement. Papaano pa po siya makagagawa doon ng masamang bagay?”
Flores also said that Pemberton is “very willing” to personally apologize to the Laude family even as she pointed to the monetary compensation and the American’s decision to withdraw his appeal before the Supreme Court as manifestations of the soldier’s regret over the incident.
“Nakakulong po ‘yung tao. Talagang wala siyang pagkakataon na mag-communicate. Pero kung meron siyang pagkakataon ay mag-a-apologize siya,” she said. “Kung gusto nila eh puwede naman po tumawag at mag-apologize. He’s very willing po to do that.”
Despite only being five years into his prison term of six to 10 years, Pemberton was ordered released because the judge took into account the GCTA he had accumulated while detained.
Laude’s family immediately filed an appeal, arguing that there is no proof of Pemberton’s supposed good behavior. The Bureau of Corrections then said it would not release Pemberton pending the resolution of the appeal./PN
