Laude family may be banned from military camps

MANILA, Philippines - The family of slain transgender Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude and their lawyers may be banned from all military installations in the country because of their attempt to enter a restricted area at Camp Aguinaldo last week.

“All those who tried to enter a restricted area and who violated the camp regulations may be banned,” Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) public affairs chief Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc said in a phone interview yesterday.

Cabunoc said there is no formal order yet to ban the Laude family and their lawyers, but their attempt to enter the restricted Mutual Defense Board-Security Engagement Board (MDB-SEB) facility is being investigated.

“Any Filipino citizen can be granted access to any military camp in the Philippines. However, they have to follow the AFP’s rules. There are facilities that cannot be accessed by visitors like the MDB-SEB facility,” he added.

Cabunoc noted that the Laude camp used deception when they went to the MDB-SEB facility, where American serviceman Pfc. Joseph Pemberton, the suspect in the killing of Jeffrey, is being detained.

He said the Laude family and their lawyers had been barred from entering Gate 3 of Camp Aguinaldo because they were with Jeffrey’s fiancé Marc Suselbeck and foreigners cannot enter camps without clearance.

“They hid Suselbeck and entered the camp through Gate 6. They told the guards that they are going to the AFP Public Affairs Office. They lied to the guards,” Cabunoc said.

Laude’s mother Julita, his sisters Marilou and Michelle, Suselbeck and their lawyers Harry Roque and Virgie Suarez tried to enter the MDB-SEB facility last Oct. 22 to see Pemberton but were denied entry by military police.

Marilou and Suselbeck climbed over the fence, resulting in a confrontation between the Laude camp and soldiers that lasted for about 30 minutes.

Suselbeck pushed T/Sgt. Mariano Pamittan, one of the guards who tried to block him, prompting the military to seek the German’s deportation.

Suselbeck has apologized for his misbehavior, but Cabunoc said the AFP remains serious in its plan to ask the Bureau of Immigration to declare Suselbeck an “undesirable alien.”

This declaration will effectively bar Laude’s fiancé from returning to the country.

“We do not welcome rude people in our camp,” Cabunoc stressed.

CCP: AFP is ‘despicable’

But the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said the military is “despicable” for seeking Suselbeck’s deportation and has “showed contempt” for the Laude family while displaying loyalty to its “US military patrons.”

“It is despicable how the top leadership of the Armed Forces of the Philippines is ganging up on, and badgering, Mr. Marc Suselbeck,” CPP said in a statement.

“Climbing the fence was clearly an act of frustration after camp officials repeatedly ignored the pleas of the Laude family to verify the presence of Pemberton in the compound,” it added.

‘VFA working’

But Sen. Francis Escudero said yesterday that the mechanisms under the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) are working in the wake of the killing of Laude.

Escudero noted that there is no legal justification yet for the detention of Pemberton since no warrant of arrest has been issued against him.

“If there is no VFA, there is nothing which could have prevented Pemberton to board his ship and leave the country or take the plane and escape,” Escudero said over dzBB radio.

He said the Philippine and US governments may have reached a “Solomonic decision” allowing Pemberton’s detention in Philippine territory where the first perimeter of security is covered by Americans and the periphery secured by the Philippine military. – With Christina Mendez