The Killing of Jennifer Laude

Jennifer Laude

Jennifer Laude was a 26-year-old Filipina transgender woman in Olongapo City, a city beside the port of Subic. Her family, including her mother Julita and her sister Marilou, became the public face of a long campaign for justice after her death. Some official documents and early news reports used her birth name and male pronouns; this file refers to her as she lived.

The Night of 11 October 2014

On 11 October 2014, Laude met Joseph Scott Pemberton, a 19-year-old U.S. Marine, at the Ambyanz bar on Magsaysay Avenue in Olongapo. Pemberton was on shore leave from the USS Peleliu, which was docked at Subic while American forces took part in joint exercises with the Philippine military. The two went to a room at the Celzone Lodge. Pemberton left, and Laude was later found dead in the room. The cause of death was given as drowning.

Investigation and the Custody Dispute

A friend of Laude's identified Pemberton from photographs two days later, and on 15 October her sister filed a murder complaint. Under the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), the treaty governing U.S. troops on temporary deployment, the United States kept him in its custody, first aboard the Peleliu. Manila asked for him to be handed over; Washington declined, and the Philippine government did not press the demand, while insisting its courts retained jurisdiction.

Prosecutors charged Pemberton with murder in December 2014, and an arrest warrant followed. He was then held at Camp Aguinaldo, the military headquarters in Quezon City, in a facility guarded by both Philippine and American personnel. When he refused to enter a plea in February 2015, the court entered a plea of not guilty for him. At trial, a fellow Marine testified that Pemberton had admitted to him that he believed he had killed Laude, using a slur about her gender identity.

Conviction and Appeals

On 1 December 2015, Judge Roline Ginez-Jabalde of the Olongapo Regional Trial Court, Branch 74, found Pemberton guilty of homicide, a lesser offence than murder. The court found no treachery, abuse of superior strength or cruelty, and rejected his claim that someone else had caused Laude's death after he left. He was sentenced to six to twelve years and ordered to pay about 4.6 million pesos in damages. Her family welcomed the guilty verdict but said it was not quite a victory, having expected a murder conviction.

In March 2016 the trial court lowered the maximum penalty to ten years. The Court of Appeals upheld the conviction in 2017. In June 2020 Pemberton withdrew his petition to the Supreme Court, making the conviction final, and in August 2020 he paid the civil damages to the family.

Early Release and Pardon

On 1 September 2020, the Olongapo court ordered Pemberton's release after crediting him with good conduct time allowances, concluding he had already served more than his maximum sentence. The family challenged the calculation, and the release was briefly suspended. On 7 September, President Rodrigo Duterte granted him an absolute pardon, saying Pemberton had not been treated fairly. Harry Roque, the presidential spokesperson and formerly the family's lawyer, said the pardon wiped out the punishment but not the conviction. On 13 September 2020, Pemberton was flown out of Manila on a U.S. military aircraft, about six years after Laude's death.

Why the Case Matters

Laude's killing became the defining test of how the VFA works when a visiting American service member is accused of a serious crime. The Philippines tried and convicted Pemberton, but he served his time at Camp Aguinaldo rather than an ordinary prison, and the custody arrangement, the generous sentence credits and the pardon reinforced a widespread belief that U.S. personnel receive special treatment. The case has been central to repeated calls to review or end the VFA and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

It also drew sustained attention to violence against transgender women, kept alive through vigils, protests and the documentary Call Her Ganda. In October 2024, ten years after her death, youth groups held candle-lighting protests and a screening of that film, again demanding an end to both defence agreements. No new court proceedings have been reported since Pemberton's departure; his conviction stands, while the punishment was erased by the pardon.