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t u e s d ay : M a R C H 24 , 2 0 1 5
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editorial@thestandard.com.ph
Laude kin reject plea bargain proposal By Rey E. Requejo
THE family of slain transgender Filipino Jennifer Laude on Monday rejected a plea bargain deal in the murder case against US Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton.
Search for justice.
US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton (right) enters an Olongapo City courthouse to attend his trial for the murder of transgender Jeffrey Laude. AFP
‘Jinggoy bail trial to taking forever’ By Rio N. Araja THE petition for bail filed by Senator Jinggoy Estrada in connection with the plunder and graft charges he is facing could take at least two years to decide, a Sandiganbayan justice said Monday. Fifth Division Associate Justice Roland Jurado joked that Estrada’s bail petition could take very long to resolve at the pace the hearings were going. “I tell you, the [bail] case will take two years. We are still in the process of hearing the side of the Anti-Money Laundering Council,” Jurado told Estrada’s lawyers and
the prosecutors when council investigator Orlando Negradas was about to present the council’s evidence. Jurado, along with Alexander Gesmundo and Maria Teresa Dolores Estoesta—the two other associate justices of the Fifth Division—requested the defense and the prosecution to find ways to speed up the bail hearing. Mounting objections and arguments prompted the anti-graft court to order Estrada’s camp and the prosecution to agree on some stipulations that could help speed up the hearings. Justice Undersecretary Jose
Justiniano agreed with the antigraft court that the case could not move forward without both parties agreeing to some arrangement. The defense lawyers tried to prevent Negradas from testifying, but Negradas was able to take the witness stand to reveal the council’s alleged findings on the money-laundering activities and questionable bank transactions of Estrada and his dummies. Estrada slammed the slow progress in his bail petition after Monday’s hearing and blamed the prosecution for the delay in the proceedings.
As the Olongapo City regional trial court started its trial proper, Laude’s mother Julita and sister Malou went to the Justice Department to denounce the public prosecutors’ exclusion of their family from the negotiation on the agreement. “What we are fighting for is murder and not to downgrade the case. What they did to my child was gruesome. Just because we are poor doesn’t mean we can’t fight for justice,” Julita, accompanied by lawyer Harry Roque Jr., told reporters. “What we want is to see Pemberton in jail. I never said I would agree [to the plea bargain]. What I only said was that if we would be given even one million dollars, that would not be enough for us.” Roque claimed it was Olongapo City Prosecutor Emilie delos Santos who was pushing for the P21million settlement with Pemberton’s camp without consulting the victim’s family. “She was pushing for the plea bargain—that she would allow Pemberton to plead guilty to homicide but the civil aspect of the case will proceed,” Roque said. “That’s not possible because the civil aspect is deemed instituted to the criminal case. Laude’s family raised the issue on the plea bargain deal with Justice Secretary Leila de Lima. In a two-page letter, the Laudes accused fiscal delos Santos of block-
ing Roque’s participation in the case conferences. “First of all, as far as we know, we have the right under the Constitution to choose our own lawyer in whatever cases we face,” the Laude family said in the letter. “This is why we don’t understand why the current public prosecutor does not allow our lawyer to defend us and make sure justice for the killing of Jennifer Laude would be served.” As a result, the Laudes asked De Lima to replace delos Santos and the other members of the Justice Department panel handling the murder case. Delos Santos denied pushing for a P21-million plea bargain deal in the case. She said court records would prove there was no truth to the accusation that she was the one who pushed for the plea bargaining deal in exchange for a lesser crime of homicide for Pemberton. Roque said the Laude family had “consistently rejected” the offer. “The death [of Jennifer] was attended by cruelty, abuse of superior authority and treachery,” Roque said. “We want to see Pemberton’s conviction where he will be sentenced to life imprisonment rather than 12 years or 20 years in prison with the possibility of a release and a possibility that it will be spent in the US.”
Newly-found plant to be named after Pope Francis A DOCTOR at the University of Santo Tomas has named a newly discovered flowering plant that is said to cure critical illnesses after Pope Francis. Grecebio Jonathan Alejandro named the plant after Francis to express gratitude for his visit to UST, Asia’s oldest university, on Jan. 18. The Hedyotis papafranciscoi Alejandro was discovered in Mt. Madia-as in Antique, and it is said to cure some cancers, fever, rheumatism and malaria. So far, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines has yet to comment on this development. UST is also holding a papal exhibit that will run until March 28 at the lobby of its main building.
The “Thomasian Scientists’ Expression of Love” exhibit will feature new plant species, organisms and bacteria discovered by UST’s faculty members and students. Meanwhile, UST’s College of Science has found two other newly characterized Philippine organisms: Phyllostica francisci, sp. nov., a novel fungal endophyte with potential bio-active metabolites that can be useful in drug discovery, and vBEpopefrancis, a new bacteriophage isolate that is a potential alternative to conventional therapy in bacterial infections. UST’s searchers are scientists Dr. Thomas Edison de la Cruz, Carlo Chris Apurillo, Donna May Papa, Paola Bianca Buiser and Delia Ontengco. Sara Susanne D. Fabunan
Double flag-raising. Makati Mayor JunJun Binay is joined by his sister and Senator Nancy Binay in leading the flag raising ceremony at the Makati City Hall. Nearby, Vice Mayor Romulo Peña, who wants to take over city hall, led a simultaneous rite. EY ACASIO