The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
October 14, 2014

Philippines: U.S. Marine Held on Navy Ship After Murder of Transgender Woman 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


 
A U.S. marine is being held on board a Navy ship following the apparent
murder of a transgender woman in the Philippines. Twenty-six-year-old
Jennifer Laude was found dead in a hotel bathroom. Police in the
Philippines say they plan to charge Private First Class Scott Pemberton
with murder, but under a deal called the Visiting Forces Agreement he
will remain in U.S. custody. In Manila, protesters called for the marine
to be handed over to local authorities. Activist Renato Reyes,
secretary-general of the New Patriotic Alliance, made reference to an
earlier controversy, the Subic rape case, when four U.S. marines were
accused and ultimately acquitted of raping a Filipina woman.

Renato Reyes: "This is another test of the Visiting Forces Agreement. As
we have seen in the past, the VFA has been used by the United States
government to shield its personnel from any accountability under
Philippine law. And we will not allow a repeat of what happened in the
2006 Subic rape case. So this has to go through Philippine jurisdiction.
Anything less is unacceptable."

 

.