MANILA (PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - The Court of Appeals has shut the door on US Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton's attempt to overturn the 10-year jail sentence meted out to him by an Olongapo City Regional Trial Court (RTC) for killing transgender Jeffrey "Jennifer" Laude.

Besides upholding with finality the guilty verdict, the appellate court's former Special 16th Division sustained its order directing the US serviceman to indemnify the victim's family of 4.32 million pesos (S$114,600).

It said the arguments that Pemberton, who is being held at a special facility in Camp Aguinaldo, raised in his appeal were just a repeat of the points he had previously presented in his earlier petition.

"The bits of evidence, pieced together, point to Pemberton as the killer of Laude… Pemberton's criminal liability for homicide stands," the court said in a resolution.

"With respect to Pemberton's motion, we maintain our ruling that his invocation of self-defence is an admission of the killing and of its authorship," it said.

The American was found guilty of homicide in December 2015 for killing Laude in a drunken rage. The two met in a bar in October 2014 and went to a motel near a former US naval base north of the capital Manila.

In his testimony, Pemberton admitted arm-locking Laude's head after they got into a scuffle.

The soldier's lawyers said Laude was still breathing when Pemberton left the scene. They argued that someone else, who was after some money, might have killed Laude. </s> MUGSHOT. The Court of Appeals rules with finality on US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton's killing of Filipino transgender woman Jennifer Laude. File photo from PNP Olongapo PIO

MANILA, Philippines – The Court of Appeals (CA) declared final its decision sentencing US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton to a maximum of 10 years in prison for killing Filipino transgender woman Jennifer Laude in 2014.

In a 12-page resolution issued on August 15, the CA junked the appeal filed by Pemberton and upheld its earlier ruling of homicide.

The CA said Pemberton's arguments were a mere "rehash of the issues" already discussed in the decision last April 3, where the CA upheld the ruling of the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court against him.

"With respect to Pemberton's motion, we maintain our ruling that his invocation of self-defense is an admission of the killing and of its authorship," said the CA ruling, penned by Associate Justice Marlene Gonzales-Sison. Associate Justices Ramon Cruz and Henri Jean Paul Inting concurred with the decision.

"Pemberton's contention that he was only raising complete and incomplete self-defense in the physical injuries he inflicted upon [Jennifer] Laude is bereft of rhyme or reason as the former was not charged for any physical injuries but for homicide," the CA ruled.

Pemberton insisted that he did not kill Laude, claiming the latter was alive when he left her inside their motel room, and that the wounds he inflicted on Laude were done out of self-defense. An autopsy report earlier revealed Laude died due to asphyxia by drowning and strangulation.

"Pemberton unabashedly plunged Laude's head in the toilet for the puerile reason that Laude pretended to be a woman. To our mind, placing Laude's head inside a toilet shows that Pemberton never thought of Laude as a human being, but as fecal matter due to [her] sexual orientation," the court ruling said.

Pemberton asked the CA to consider his voluntary surrender as a mitigating circumstance and to lessen the penalty.

But the CA did not buy his arguments, saying there was no medical proof that Pemberton was attacked or "slapped" by Laude.

"The allegation of Pemberton that he was slapped by Laude could not even be corroborated by any medical findings. Worthy to note that according to Pemberton, the slap he allegedly received made his ear ring which if true should have promoted Pemberton to immediately seek medical attention," the CA said.

To further counter Pemberton's claims, the CA said if he were indeed only trying to defend himself, he should have sought medical assistance for Laude.

The CA added that Pemberton's immediate escape from the motel is a sign of guilt.

"The bits of evidence, pieced together, point to Pemberton as the killer of Laude. Ostensibly, our rules make no distinction between direct evidence of a fact and evidence of circumstances from which the existence of a fact may be inferred. Pemberton's criminal liability for homicide stands," the CA said.

Aside from the US Marine's appeal, the CA also denied the Office of the Solicitor General's plea not to grant Pemberton full credit for the time he spent under preventive imprisonment because he did not voluntarily agree to follow the same rules imposed upon convicted prisoners.

The appellate court also upheld the payment of "loss of earning capacity" to Laude's family, amounting to P4.32 million. – Rappler.com </s> A Kuwaiti court has sentenced a Lebanese man and his wife to death after they were convicted in absentia of killing a Filipina maid in a case that triggered a crisis between the Philippines and the Gulf Arab state, Kuwaiti newspapers reported on Sunday.

A Kuwaiti court has sentenced a Lebanese man and his wife to death after they were convicted in absentia of killing a Filipina maid in a case that triggered a crisis between the Philippines and the Gulf Arab state, Kuwaiti newspapers reported on Sunday.

Couple sentenced to death for murder of maid in Kuwait

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte last month ordered workers in Kuwait to return home over alleged abuse following the discovery of the female worker’s body in the freezer of an abandoned home that belonged to a Lebanese man and his Syrian wife.

Kuwaiti newspaper al-Rai said the pair were convicted in absentia of premeditated murder. Al-Qabas, another newspaper, said the criminal court issued its verdict at its first hearing, convicting the pair of “killing the Filipina worker and putting her body in the freezer”. It said the murder was discovered more than a year after it had taken place and that the couple had been sentenced in absentia. Both newspapers reported the death sentence.

The sentences are subject to appeal under Kuwaiti law. Lebanese media reported last month that the worker’s former employer was in custody in connection with the case and that authorities were considering a Kuwaiti request to extradite him.

AFP news agency, quoting a judicial source, reported in February that the woman was being held in her native Syria. Kuwait and the Philippines, eager to end the crisis, signed an agreement last month regulating some working conditions for domestic workers in the Gulf Arab State.

There are more than 250,000 Filipinos in Kuwait, the Philippine Foreign Ministry estimates, with most working as domestic helpers. There are also large numbers in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. </s> (CNN) A Kuwaiti court has sentenced a Lebanese man and his wife to death in absentia for the murder of a Filipina maid, the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs said.

The case of Joanna Demafelis, a 29-year-old maid whose body was found in a freezer earlier this year, prompted a diplomatic crisis between Kuwait and the Philippines, with Manila banning its citizens from working in the Gulf state.

Demafelis' body was discovered in the couple's abandoned apartment more than a year after she went missing. Nader Essam Assaf, a Lebanese national, and his wife Mona Hassoun, who is Syrian, were the subject of an Interpol manhunt.

Kuwaiti newspaper al-Qabas said a criminal court had on April 1 sentenced Assaf and his wife to death by hanging.

The Philippines government said Monday it had been informed of the sentence by a Kuwaiti official and added it had obtained a copy of the court decision.

Assaf has been detained in Lebanon, which is now considering a Kuwaiti extradition request, according to the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs. Hassoun was detained in Syria, according to CNN Philippines

The Kuwait Ministry of Justice did not immediately respond to CNN requests for confirmation.

'Swift action'

Philippines foreign affairs secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said Manila noted "the swift action taken by Kuwaiti authorities" in connection with Demafelis' murder.

"This is a very important development in our quest for justice for Joanna," he added.

Jessica, sister of Filipina overseas worker Joanna Demafelis, cries near the casket shortly after its arrival in Manila on February 16.

The discovery of Demafelis' body in February led to a fiery outburst from Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who vowed to "sell his soul to the devil" to bring home workers who were being abused in Kuwait.

After Demafelis' death and other instances of worker abuse, Duterte's government offered free flights home for the 10,900 or so Filipinos who have overstayed their visas, and ordered a ban on the further deployment of workers to Kuwait.

Of more than 250,000 Filipinos in Kuwait, at least 60% are domestic workers who live and work in the homes of their employers for more money than they can earn at home.

Demafelis' family lost contact with her in May 2016, about two years after she arrived in the Middle East, according to CNN Philippines.

They said she never said anything bad about her employers, but had suspicions she was being watched. Demafelis was only able to speak to them three times a year.

During her last phone call, Demafelis said she planned to come home in 2018. But after not hearing from her for a nearly year, Demafelis' family reported her missing, her sister told CNN Philippines.

Investigators tried to find her through the Kuwaiti agency that recruited her, but discovered it had closed down. </s> A lawyer for confessed Davao Death Squad (DDS) hit man Edgar Matobato on Monday filed crimes against humanity charges against President Duterte and 11 of his allies in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague over the killings of suspected criminals when he was mayor of Davao City and thousands of drug suspects in his brutal war on drugs.

In a 77-page complaint submitted to the ICC, lawyer Jude Josue Sabio cited “continuing mass murder” in the Philippines, as shown by the thousands of deaths in Mr. Duterte’s bloody campaign against crime and illegal drugs in Davao City, which he rolled out on a national scale after becoming President of the Philippines.

Malacañang slammed the filing of the complaint as part of efforts to embarrass Mr. Duterte on the eve of his playing host to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit.

“[It was] apparently meant to create negative news in the midst of the Philippines Asean debut,” presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said in a statement.

Sabio told ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda that her speedy action on the complaint “would not only serve the noble ends of international criminal justice, but would also be the beginning of the end of this dark, obscene, murderous and evil era in the Philippines.”

From the time he was mayor of Davao City up to the time he became President, Mr. Duterte has been “repeatedly, unchangingly and continuously” committing mass murders “constituting crimes against humanity,” Sabio said in the complaint.

He said 1,400 people were killed in Davao City during Mr. Duterte’s long rule there as mayor and more than 7,000 people had been killed since Mr. Duterte launched his war on drugs after taking office as President at the end of June last year.

“Crimes against humanity are crimes of universal jurisdiction, but where a state like the Philippines fails to assume such universal jurisdiction for crimes against humanity continuously being committed in its very own territory, then the International Criminal Court will have to intervene [in] a situation that is grave by any human standard,” he said.

“These mass murders undertaken as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population of the Philippines, disproportionately an attack against the poor or impoverished civilian population, constitute a flagrant, wanton and willful violation of the nonderogable right to life enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other international human rights laws,” he said.

“The grim statistics of more than 7,000 drug-related killings cannot be anything but grave, especially if viewed in the context of just seven months since Rodrigo Duterte became the President, compared to only about 3,000 committed during the 20-year Marcos regime. These more than 7,000 drug-related killings translate to roughly 1,000 killings per month,” he said.

At that rate and with impunity prevailing, the body count will reach 72,000 if Mr. Duterte completes his six-year term, Sabio said.

Abella said the complaint would not prosper, as the ICC takes a case only when legal remedies in the country concerned has been exhausted.

Sabio and Matobato, he said, “did not avail [themselves of or] exhaust all domestic remedies allowed under the Philippine Constitution.”

“Furthermore, an independent Senate investigated the charges hurled against the President with [confessed] hit man Mr. Matobato as star witness. As such there is no unwillingness or inability on the part of the state to investigate and prosecute the President,” Abella said.

He insisted that the extrajudicial killings are not state-sponsored, as police “are conducting legitimate operations that require observance of operational protocols and those who breach procedures are made to answer before the law.”

Policemen found violating procedures can be investigated by the Philippine National Police through its Internal Affairs Service, which Abella said could “suspend or dismiss” erring officers and recommend their prosecution.

“To end this impunity, the International Criminal Court is being resorted to as a court of last resort, given the gravity of the current human rights disaster in the Philippines,” Sabio said.

He said any investigation under the current administration would be futile because the officials with the mandate to investigate, being “alter egos and trusted men of President Duterte,” were “not in a position to contradict the actuations and pronouncements” of Mr. Duterte.

He pointed out that most of the President’s men “have announced in public their full support” for the war on drugs and “defended the extrajudicial or summary executions as part of legitimate police drug operations.”

Sabio’s complaint relies heavily on the accounts of Matobato, confessed DDS leader Arturo Lascañas and Ernesto Avasola, the reports of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch; Fr. Amado Picardal’s report titled “The Victims of the Davao Death Squad: Consolidated Report 1998-2015”; and media reports on the war on drugs quoting Mr. Duterte and his officials.

Accused of crimes against humanity with Mr. Duterte were Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II; the PNP chief, Director General Ronald dela Rosa; police Superintendents Edilberto Leonardo and Royina Garma; Speaker of the House of Representatives Pantaleon Alvarez; former Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno; SPO4 Sanson “Sonny” Buenaventura; National Bureau of Investigation Director Dante Gierran; Solicitor General Jose Calida, and Senators Richard Gordon and Alan Peter Cayetano.

Sabio said Aguirre’s comments that drug addicts had no human rights “make him criminally liable because he is contributing to the commission of the crime in any other way with the conscious aim of furthering the criminal purpose or activity of the death squads.”

Aguirre has “labeled the suspects without the benefit of due process and knowing that many of those who had been labeled were eventually killed either by the police or vigilantes,” Sabio said.

He said Aguirre was also the lawyer of Bienvenido Laud, the owner of the quarry where many of the DDS victims were said to have been buried.

According to Sabio, Matobato and Lascañas have said Dela Rosa took part in certain DDS operations when Mr. Duterte, the alleged founder of the death squad, was mayor of Davao City.

Matobato testified in the Senate in September about the DDS killings on Mr. Duterte’s orders, admitting to carrying out many of the killings.

Lascañas, who at first denied the existence of the DDS in a Senate testimony but turned around in February and confirmed that Mr. Duterte founded the squad and ordered the Davao killings, has fled to Singapore with his family, waiting to be summoned by the ICC.

Sabio alleged that Dela Rosa, as PNP chief, knows the activities of the national-level death squads killing drug suspects.

Dela Rosa also knows Leonardo and Garma, who has been tasked with overseeing death squad operations nationwide by Mr. Duterte, Sabio said.

Leonardo, a former officer in the Davao Regional Police, is now with the Manila Police District and has helped “design and operate the reward system” for Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs, he said.

Sabio accused Garma of responsibility for the drug killings in Central Visayas, where she is the head of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

Alvarez was charged for his comments that “clearly incite violence and mass murder, or further in a certain way the criminal purpose of President Duterte.”

Sueno, Sabio said, allowed police and village captains, who were under his administrative control, to carry out “Oplan Tokhang,” the police door-to-door campaign that “led to the discrimination [against] and vilification of those identified as drug users and dealers, and their eventual murder, persecution, mental torture and incarceration.”

Sabio alleged that Buenaventura handed out rewards to DDS hit men and had direct involvement in the death squad.

He accused Gierran of failing to investigate the “widespread and systematic” killings in the war on drugs, thus facilitating the continued commission of the crime.

Calida, he said, promised to defend policemen accused of summary killings “if the killings are committed as part of the war on drugs.”

His “enthusiastic promise to defend wrongdoing echoes and backs up President Duterte’s statements promising exoneration for those who follow his orders to kill, facilitating the commission of more murders,” Sabio said.

Gordon, chair of the Senate committee on justice and human rights, was included in the complaint for concluding that the extrajudicial killings in the war on drugs were not state-sponsored.

Cayetano was accused of “aiding and abetting the killings” through “speeches and public pronouncements denying extrajudicial killings,” thus encouraging the war on drugs.

Sabio said Cayetano attributed supposedly “safer” communities to the deaths of drug suspects and criminals.

The complaint said the actions of Gordon and Cayetano that led to the removal of Sen. Leila de Lima as chair of the Senate committee on justice and human rights resulted in the “whitewash[ing]” and abrupt termination of the Senate inquiry into the extrajudicial killings.

De Lima, who investigated the Davao killings in 2009 as chair of the Commission on Human Rights, is detained on drug charges that the European Parliament has described as “spurious.”

Aguirre’s department accused her of receiving protection money from convicts trafficking drugs from their cells in New Bilibid Prison.

In his complaint, Sabio noted “sufficient factual and legal basis” for Bensouda’s office to confirm with the ICC Pretrial Chamber that there was enough evidence to put Mr. Duterte on trial for crimes against humanity.

Sabio requested Bensouda to investigate Mr. Duterte and his senior administration officials and, if the Pretrial Chamber finds enough evidence to put them on trial, issue a warrant for their arrest and detention in the ICC’s detention center in The Hague to prevent them from killing more people and potential witnesses.

In October last year, Bensouda warned that her office would be “closely” monitoring the developments in the Philippines, and warned government officials that they were potentially liable to prosecution in the ICC. —WITH A REPORT FROM CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO </s> The retrial of a Blackwater security guard convicted of first-degree murder in 2014 resulted in a hung jury Wednesday, dealing a blow to the Justice Department’s long pursuit of accountability for a 2007 shooting of unarmed civilians that drew international condemnation during the Iraq War.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth of the District of Columbia declared a mistrial after a jury of seven women and five men said it was deadlocked on the 16th day of deliberations in the case of Nicholas A. Slatten. Slatten, 34, was accused of unleashing the first shots that set off machine gun and grenade fire that killed or injured 31 civilians in stopped traffic at Baghdad’s Nisour Square on Sept. 16, 2007.

Charges were first brought against six Blackwater employees in 2008 and over the next decade their cases careered among trial and appeals courts.

It was the second time Slatten faced trial for murder in the shooting rampage that outraged diplomatic and humanitarian circles and sparked calls to end the U.S. government’s use of private military forces.

The retrial jury had indicated in a note last week to the judge that it was at an impasse and asked “please advise.” The judge sent them home for the weekend and asked them to try again to reach a verdict when they returned to court Tuesday.

A jury in Washington, D.C., in October 2014 convicted Slatten of murder and three fellow Blackwater Worldwide guards of 30 counts of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter. The team was part of a convoy protecting State Department personnel.

A federal appeals court last August ordered a new trial for Slatten, saying he should have been tried separately from a co-defendant, Paul A. Slough, 38, who told investigators days after the shootings that he, not Slatten, fired the first rounds in the incident.

Slatten, of Sparta, Tennessee, had been imprisoned in Sumterville, Florida, serving a mandatory life sentence, before being moved to Virginia and the District of Columbia for retrial.

Prosecutors still face resentencings of three other convicted defendants, Slough, of Keller, Texas, Evan S. Liberty, 36, of Rochester, New Hampshire., and Dustin L. Heard, 37, of Maryville, Tennessee.

The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that vacated Slatten’s conviction last year also set aside the 30-year terms handed to the defendants in 2014 , saying the sentences violated a constitutional prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment.”

The three men received twice the maximum punishment for manslaughter alone after being convicted of using military firearms while committing a felony, an enhanced penalty that was primarily aimed at gang members and had never been used against security contractors given military weapons by the U.S. government.

In a 2-to-1 ruling, the panel said it did not intend to minimize the carnage attributable to the men, saying “their poor judgments resulted in the deaths of many innocent people,” but called for more “nuanced” penalties based on each’s wrongdoing rather than “sledgehammer” treatment.

Lamberth, the judge in both trials, had deferred resentencing until the outcome of Slatten’s retrial.

During the long history of the Blackwater prosecution one guard, Jeremy Ridgeway, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and testified against Slatten in both of Slatten’s trials, although he also said he believed Slough fired first. Prosecutors withdrew charges against one other Blackwater convoy member, citing a lack of evidence.

A federal judge initially threw out the other indictments in 2009, saying prosecutors improperly relied on statements the guards have given State Department investigators immediately after the shooting believing their statements would not be used in court.

Another three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit reversed that ruling in 2011, clearing the way for prosecutors to obtain fresh indictments against Slatten and the three others.

However, prosecutors took so long to charge Slatten that the statutory time limit for bringing a manslaughter charge had expired, an error the appeals court panel contributed to an errant ruling, a court found.

The Justice Department responded by charging Slatten, a former Army sniper, with first-degree murder, which has no statute of limitations, but required a higher burden of proof, including premeditation, which prosecutors labored this summer to meet.

Slatten’s defense also got a new boost when a key government witness – Jimmy Watson, the leader of the four-vehicle convoy who was seated next to Slatten – retreated from his previously strong, repeated testimony that he had heard Slatten fire first.

Watson, whom Slatten’s attorneys said suffered a brain injury in a diving accident while a Navy SEAL, appeared “a bit of a shell of himself” on the stand in the retrial, lead prosecutor Patrick Martin acknowledged, “looking off into the distance” and speaking in a muted tone and cadence.
• Oakland to sue Raiders over Las Vegas move; team could leave city early
• East Bay man gets 2 years for ‘misleading’ concert promoters about Red Hot Chili Peppers But Martin asked jurors to remember “the 2013 Watson,” who without hesitation and “clear as a bell” said seven times– in recorded grand jury testimony that was played at the retrial–that he heard Slatten fire first, then Slough.

“He was not the Mr. Watson of 2013 . . . You saw a different man up here, and that was unfortunate,” Martin said in the government’s closing arguments. “But the 2013 Watson gives you the testimony you need” to find Slatten guilty. </s> Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo says a review of the law 'reveals that it is categorical in excluding recidivists, habitual delinquents, escapees, and persons charged with heinous crimes from the benefit of its coverage'

WILL HE STAY IN JAIL? Rapist and murderer Antonio Sanchez is seen inside the Maximum Security Compound of the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City on August 22, 2019. Photo by Lito Borras/Rappler

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang said on Friday, August 23, that based on the "spirit and letter of the law," rapist and murderer Antonio Sanchez is not qualified for early release.

Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo cited the provision of Republic Act No. 10592 or the law on good conduct time allowance (GCTA) that disqualifies those convicted of heinous crimes from availing of reduced prison terms under the law.

Panelo said a review of the law “reveals that it is categorical in excluding recidivists, habitual delinquents, escapees, and persons charged with heinous crimes from the benefit of its coverage.”

“This is the letter and the spirit of the law. Thus, the inevitable conclusion is that all those convicted of a heinous crime, including Mr Antonio Sanchez, would be ineligible and disqualified from availing the benefits of the GCTA,” said Panelo.

Panelo was Sanchez’s lawyer in the rape-slay case of Eileen Sarmenta, and the murder of Sarmenta’s friend Allan Gomez. Both were students of the University of the Philippines-Los Baños when they were killed in 1993.

Sanchez was sentenced to 7 terms of reclusion perpetua for the 1993 murder-slay case, and two terms of reclusion perpetua for the murder of Nelson Peñalosa and son Rickson.

Panelo assured those opposed to the early release of Sanchez that the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) under the Department of Justice (DOJ) would conduct a thorough and “careful” review of the GCTA of convicts.

He said Malacañang supports the DOJ's directive to BuCor “to carefully and cautiously review the GCTA of persons who have been found guilty by the courts of having committed high profile, heinous crimes or crimes so grave that show extreme moral depravity.”

Panelo reiterated that reduced prison terms would be granted only to those who are entitled to it, based on the determination of the DOJ which supervises BuCor.

He also welcomed the planned Senate inquiry into the earlier reported possible early release of Sanchez.

On Tuesday, August 20, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said that Sanchez would be among those who would benefit from the retroactive application of RA 10592 as he had been in jail for more than 25 years. The 2013 law used to be prospective in application, but the Supreme Court had ruled that it would be retroactive, to cover cases prior to its enactment.

His statement sparked public outrage over the possible early release of Sanchez, as families of his victims demanded proof of his good behavior in prison.

Guevarra, as well as BuCor chief Nicanor Faeldon, later said on Thursday, August 22, that Sanchez was ineligible for release.

Faeldon had cited Sanchez's misdemeanors, such as stashing drugs inside Bilibid, affecting his good conduct time record. As such, the former mayor may still stay inside prison "for several years." – Mia Gonzalez/Rappler.com </s> A criminal case was filed against President Rodrigo Duterte before the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, Netherlands for his alleged involvement in extrajudicial killings when he was still mayor of Davao City, and now as President of the Philippines.

In the 77-page communication submitted to the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC, Jude Sabio, lawyer of self-confessed hitman Edgar Matobato, accused Duterte of violating the Articles of the Rome Statute through mass murder or extrajudicial executions, which, he claimed, constituted crimes against humanity.

Duterte allegedly committed the crimes during his tenure as mayor of Davao City, through his personal involvement in the so-called Davao Death Squad, and now as President of the Philippines through his war on drugs.

The Rome Statute is the treaty that established the ICC, the first permanent international court that is capable of trying perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression—the statute’s four core international crimes.

The Philippines is a state party to the Rome Statute, together with other 123 state parties, after ratifying it in August 2011.

Apart from Duterte, 11 of his allies including two senators were also charged for violating provisions of the Rome Statute.

Others facing charges at the ICC are Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Richard Gordon, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre 2nd, Police National Police (PNP) Chief Ronald de la Rosa, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, former Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno, Supt. Edilberto Leonardo, Senior Police Officer 4 Sanson “Sonny” Buenaventura, Supt. Royina Garma, National Bureau of Investigation Director Dante Gierran, and Solicitor General Jose Calida.

Sabio said Gordon, as chairman of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights and sponsor of Senate Committee Report No. 18196 on the spate of summary execution of suspected drug trader, is liable for “ultimately concluding that killings are not state-sponsored.”

He added that Cayetano aided and abetted the killings “through his speeches and public pronouncements.”

 Sabio cited in his complaint the similarities in the killings in Davao City and in the drug war.

“The basic material hallmarks or elements in the extrajudicial executions by the Davao Death Squad in Davao City and in the continued extrajudicial executions after President Duterte became the President are too numerous and too obvious to escape scant attention,” he said.

He noted the presence police participation and command; the element of a hitman or an unknown armed assailant; the establishment of a reward system for every killing; the existence of a kill watch list; collaboration between barangay (village) and police officials; cardboard signs and faces or bodies wrapped in packing tape; the use of motorcycle-riding assailants; and planting of guns and drugs.

Sabio said Duterte had completely ignored the appeals of local and international human rights groups and other international bodies to stop the killings.

Also, Duterte’s officials and allies have become instruments in covering up the issue in the media and congressional investigations.

“It is for these reasons that I have referred this case to the ICC to make President Duterte accountable for his crimes in the name of international criminal justice, and to once and for all end this dark, obscene, murderous and evil era in the Philippines,” Sabio said.

After filing the case, the ICC prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, will determine whether it falls within the jurisdiction of the ICC and if it is proper to file criminal charges against the accused, before investigating the case and issuing a warrant of arrest against the President and other respondents.

Malacañang on Monday dismissed as “baseless” the complaint filed against President Duterte before the ICC in The Hague.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella suspected that the filing of the case was “meant to create negative news” amid the Philippines’ hosting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit.

“It cannot prosper. International Criminal Court rules provide that the ICC, as a court of last resort, will only exercise jurisdiction over a case once legal remedies in the Philippines have been exhausted. Atty. Sabio or his client, Mr. Edgardo Matobato, did not avail/exhaust all domestic remedies allowed under the Philippine Constitution,” Abella said.

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said such complaint would not flourish because there was no basis to allege that Duterte had ordered the extrajudicial killings.

Panelo noted that under the international treaty, murder should have been committed against a class of people, which was not the case in Sabio’s complaint.

“It is not a state-sponsored war in respect to the extrajudicial killings. The [extrajudicial killings]come up because of members of the syndicates who are killing each other, they’re spilling the beans against their own comrades. Those in danger of being prosecuted and arrested would necessarily silence those who are pointing fingers at them,” he told reporters.

“Even assuming that there is police participation in these killings, the police records would show that those who have abused their authority were charged in court. That will negate the claim that it is state-initiated. Otherwise they would have not been charged,” he added.

Matobato last year confessed before the Philippine Senate that he was part of the so-called Davao Death Squad, which was allegedly formed by Duterte to eliminate political opponents and drug addicts.

The ICC complaint was based on the testimonies of Matobato, retired policeman Arturo Lascañas, media reports and reports from rights groups.

Almost 9,000 people have been killed since Duterte assumed the presidency in June 2016. </s> DETAINED. Major General Jovito Palparan ran a senatorial campaign in 2016 from his detention cell at Fort Bonifacio. Photo by Carlo Gabuco/Rappler

BULACAN, Philippines (UPDATED) – Retired Army Major General Jovito Palparan was found guilty on Monday, September 17, of kidnapping and serious illegal detention in the 2006 disappearance of University of the Philippines (UP) students Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan.

Palparan’s co-accused Lieutenant Colonel Felipe Anotado and S/Sgt Edgardo Osorio were also found guilty of kidnapping and serious illegal detention. The decision was promulgated by the Malolos Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 15.

The 3 are sentenced to up to 40 years in prison, and are each ordered to pay P100,000 in civil indemnity and P200,000 for moral damages.

Judge Alexander Tamayo committed Palparan, Anotado, and Osorio to be detained at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) but their lawyers appealed in open court to let them remain at the custodial center at the Fort Bonifacio in Taguig due to another pending case at the Malolos RTC.

Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera said Supreme Court rules state that Palparan et al would be detained in Bilibid upon conviction.

As the sentence was being read, Palparan shouted to Judge Tamayo: “Duwag ka Judge! Napakaduwag mo!” (You're a coward, Judge! You are such a coward!)

He was warned of contempt but Palparan retorted: “Kahit i-contempt mo kami! Makukulong naman kami eh!” (Even if you cite us for contempt, [it doesn't matter]. We will be jailed anyway!)

Palparan did not stop and told both Judge Tamayo and Navera: “Napaka gago mo! (You're such a fool!)”

Correct decision

Erlinda Cadapan, mother of Sherlyn, wept after the decision was read. She said on the way out of the court: "Tama naman po ang pasya dahil sa ebidensyang ibinigay namin sa korte. Tama po ang pasya ng korteng ito." (The court's decision is correct because of the evidence we presented to them. The decision of this court is correct.)

Asked if she remains hopeful her daughter is alive, Erlinda said, “Habang buhay ako, may iaasa akong buhay ang aking anak, at dapat ibalik ng tarantado na ‘yun! Hindi naman nahiyang sumigaw sa loob ng korte, sigawan si Judge, hindi naman nahiyang gumawa ng ganoon."

(As long as I am alive, I will have hopes that my daughter is alive, and she must be returned by that stupid fool! He had no shame shouting inside the courtroom, shouting at the judge, he was not ashamed to do that.)

Cadapan and Karen Empeño went missing on June 26, 2006 in Hagonoy, Bulacan.

The Malolos RTC ordered Palparan's arrest in December 2011, after which he went into hiding. He was found after more than 3 years, in August 2014, in an apartment above a bakery in Sta. Mesa.

He has been detained at the custodial center at Fort Bonifacio in Taguig ever since.

A co-accused, Sergeant Rizal Hilario, remains at large.

Palparan was a decorated general for his implementation of Gloria Arroyo’s counter-insurgency campaign. He gained notoriety from his assignments in Mindoro, Samar, and Central Luzon, and which earned him the monicker Berdugo or The Butcher from human rights activists.

Palparan ran and lost as senator in the 2016 national elections.

Witnesses



One of the prosecution's biggest witnesses is farmer Raymond Manalo, who claims to have seen both Cadapan and Empeño at a military cell, where he was also allegedly kept by military captors.

In detention, Manalo said he had seen and talked to Palparan twice.

Manalo said he was abducted on February 14, 2006, on suspicions that he was also a communist rebel, but was able to escape a year later on August 12, 2007.

Manalo testified in court that he saw military men torture and sexually molest Cadapan, 29 at the time, and Empeño, 22 then.

Another witness is Wilfredo Ramos Jr, who was only 14 years old at the time of abduction. Cadapan and Empeño were living with them for their immersion work, when armed men allegedly barged into their home and took the two women.

Ramos testified the same to the Court of Appeals, which affirmed Palparan’s arrest in 2017.

It was Ramos who identified Osorio, an aide of Palparan, as being among the armed men who forcibly took Cadapan and Empeño in Hagonoy.

Palparan has denied all accusations, and has earnestly fought the charges through motions all dismissed by the court since.

– Rappler.com
The Court of Appeals of the Philippines has junked U.S. Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton's motion for reconsideration, re-affirming its decision last April upholding the 2015 homicide ruling of the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court; citing the defendant's arguments as mere "rehash of issues". The Court of Appeals also upheld the payment of ₱ 4.32 million to Jennifer Laude's family for "loss of earning capacity". Pemberton faces 10 years in prison.