No one swayed President Duterte’s decision to grant absolute pardon to United States Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Tuesday.
“I saw that the President’s decision to grant pardon to Pemberton was solely his own,” Guevarra said.
“No one prompted it,” he added.
The secretary said that “granting executive clemency was the President’s constitutional prerogative.”
Guevarra said that even outgoing US Ambassador Sung Kim, who visited Malacanang on Monday, did not expect the President to pardon Pemberton.
"The US ambassador arrived for his farewell call on the President. He seemed rather surprised when the President mentioned Pemberton’s pardon, and he thanked the President for it,” he said.
The President granted pardon to Pemberton despite the opposition made by the family of slain transgender Jennifer Laude to the order of the Olongapo City court to grant him early release after crediting his good conduct time allowance (GCTA).
Virginia Lacsa Suarez, the legal counsel of the Laude family, argued that there was no way that Pemberton accumulated GCTA since he is detained in Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City and not in any of the national penitentiary where his good conduct can be recorded.
“The President simply felt that it was not Pemberton’s fault that there was no way of recording his behavior in a military detention center all alone by himself,” said Guevarra.
“So since there were no reports of misbehavior, the presumption of good conduct was on his side,” he said.