CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Philippine representatives to the meeting of the US-PHL Mutual Defense Board (MDB) agreed to 426 more joint military exercises in the country at the time that transgender Jennifer Laude was murdered allegedly by an American soldier participating in one such exercise.
“Pres. Aquino allowed the country’s representatives in the MDB to approve hundreds more of joint military activities despite a recent crime against a Filipino by another soldier of the US Marines.
This is gravely insulting to the people, especially to those opposing rising US militarism and increasing presence of US military personnel and materiel in the Philippines,” said a statement of the Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya (KPD) in Central Luzon,
It lamented that “the gruesome death of Jennifer Laude in the hands of alleged murderer PFC. Joseph Scott Pemberton of the US Marine Corps coincided with the meeting of the US-RP Mutual Defence Board (MDB).”
The group said the MDB meeting had agreed to hold 426 more joint military exercises in the country. KPD said the murder of Laude “puts under question the 1999 US-RP Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), which is under protracted review since 2012, and the recently signed USRP Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) which is not yet enforced pending Supreme Court decision on its constitutionality.”
“The main subject of both agreements consists of the increasing presence of US military forces, including personnel, arms and equipment, in the country and the continuing joint military activities of the armed forces of the USA and the Philippines,” KPD noted.
The group lamented that while the Philippine National Police (PNP) has filed murder charge against Pemberton, “this would not compel the US to transfer custody of Pemberton to the Philippines.” The KPD called for vigilance, as it expressed fear that “the handling of Pemberton’s case could fall in the same way of US Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith who was accused of raping Suzette ‘Nicole’ Nicolas in 2005.”
“Smith was convicted and was imprisoned for a few days in the Makati City Jail. He was taken away by US authorities and kept inside the US embassy until his case was settled after Nicole allegedly retracted,” the group recalled.
“The crime committed by Pemberton is heinous but its dimension is beyond itself. The real big issues are the VFA and Philippine jurisdiction, that is, sovereignty over a US soldier who committed crime in the country. The earlier case of Lance Cpl. Smith confirmed Philippine jurisdiction and sovereignty is not guaranteed by the VFA,” KPD stressed.
KPD noted that “the USA is the number one military and economic power in the world. Its bellicose posturing is sustained by its military might which the US continuously wields not only over the Philippines but over many countries in the world.
The Philippines, by its government’s subservience, serves as a US neo-colonial instrument and one of the bases for US’ projection of power over Asia-Pacific and the world.”
