On Oct. 11, 2014, trans Filipina Jennifer Laude was brutally murdered by U.S. Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton in Olongapo, Philippines, after they met at a disco bar and went to a hotel together. Although Pemberton was found guilty by Philippine authorities, the inequitable U.S.-Philippine military policy known as the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) allowed him special treatment in a U.S. facility rather than being held in a Philippine prison.
Laude’s story shook people around the world — uniting Filipino women, trans and queer women, working class women, and migrant women to fight for justice.
You can find more about Jennifer’s story and Pemberton’s trial in previous International Examiner articles from 2014 and 2019.
But in 2020, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte issued an absolute pardon, erasing Pemberton’s conviction without conditions, and granted his return back to the United States.
October marks 10 years without justice for Jennifer Laude, and 2024 is additionally significant as it marks over 25 years of the VFA and 10 years of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), both of which have enabled U.S. military expansion in the Philippines.
The long relationship between U.S. military presence in foreign countries and the increase in sex trade in those countries — from “camptowns” in Korea, to the sex industry in Thailand that grew rapidly during the Vietnam war, to the prevalence of red light districts near U.S. bases in Okinawa, Djibouti and the Philippines, just to name a few — convinces us that we cannot passively accept increased U.S. presence in the Philippines because it will inevitably increase the exploitation and violation of Filipino women and LGBTQ+ community with impunity.
To honor Laude’s memory, GABRIELA Seattle, the local chapter of an international militant group of Filipino women, alongside the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) Seattle, Malaya Seattle, Black Star Farmers, Tanod Lupa, and Resist US-Led War Seattle Chapter organized two public screenings of Call Her Ganda, a documentary sharing Laude’s life and story.
Earlier this month, on Oct. 12th, over 60 community members engaged in a protest and banner drop at the gates of Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), making demands of “Justice for Jennifer Laude” and “U.S. Out of the Philippdines!”
JBLM out of the Philippines
Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), a U.S. military installation home southwest of Tacoma, is not just a symbolic location for the Filipino women and broader community impacted by militarism and sexual violence. In 2023, a JBLM Staff Sergeant, Moeun Yoeun, was sentenced for child pornography and sexual abuses over multiple accounts of travel to the Philippines. Once noted as ‘the most troubled base in the military’ by a U.S. military news site, there have been additional documented cases of sexual and domestic violence in the last decade within and around the borders of JBLM.
In instances where these horrific abuses have made the headlines, such as in the cases of Pemberton and Yoeun, their crimes are often framed as individual concerns by bad actors. However, the U.S. military presence in the Philippines is a systemic problem, and there are many women and children around the U.S.-occupied military bases who never see justice, and many more whose stories never surface.
While JBLM remains a frequent launch point for U.S. troops deployed to the Philippine archipelago, the base is also home to the Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF) and the controversial 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB), military units tasked with expanding U.S. military capabilities all around the world — from Afghanistan, to Palestine, to the Philippines.
Pass the Philippine Human Rights Act
In addition to calls to remove JBLM personnel and weaponry from the Philippines, protesters on October 12 called for a junk of the Visiting Forces Agreement as well as the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.
Established in 2014 by President Barack Obama, barely six months before Jennifer’s murder, EDCA is a supplemental agreement to the VFA that allows the U.S. additional access to Philippine bases for joint training and deployment of weaponry. In 2023, EDCA access was further expanded under President Joe Biden as authorities identified four more military bases for the U.S. to gain access to in the Philippines, nearly doubling the total number to nine bases.
While the U.S. government claims to have the interests of the Philippines in mind, the increased presence of the U.S. military will only create more war provocations against China, putting the Filipino people further into the crossfire of world powers.
More U.S. military will worsen the exploitation in and around U.S. military bases, increasing violence against women, LGBTQ and children.
Why should this matter to us here in the United States?
Ultimately, it is our U.S. taxpayer dollars that fund the wars waged and human rights violations caused by the increased U.S. military presence around the globe. The Armed Forces of the Philippines is already the largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the Asia-Pacific, with the U.S. having sent over $1 billion in military aid between 2015 and 2022.
And this year, bipartisan U.S. legislators introduced the Philippines Enhanced Resilience Act (PERA), a bill which would grant $2.5 billion dollars in military funding to the Philippines over the next five years (2025-2029) if passed in the Senate. This bill currently sits in the Committee on Foreign Relations though it is unclear when it will move for senate voting given the current opposition to the bill.
GABRIELA Seattle joins Malaya Seattle, ICHRP Seattle, and Kabataan Alliance in calling for a rejection of the PERA bill and the passage of the Philippine Human Rights Act (PHRA). Initially introduced to the U.S. Congress in 2020, the PHRA aims to suspend the provision of security assistance to the Philippines until the Government of the Philippines has made reforms to end human rights violations by police and military forces.
The Oct. 12 banner drop action included a call for organizations and individuals to sign onto a women’s sectoral letter to endorse the PHRA.
“Justice for Jennifer Laude” means People’s Sovereignty
It’s evident that appeals to our own legislative representatives also require support of the mass movement, just as the initial trial and conviction of Pemberton in the Philippines was fueled by a mass movement that demanded justice. The most recent expansion of the EDCA military sites all occurred under Democratic Party leadership for instance, and the original Visiting Forces Agreement itself is linked back to the Clinton Administration of the 1990s.
These painful details are not to be overlooked, especially in an election year where much analysis has centered around a ‘lesser of two evils’ discussion between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Many realize that the calls for justice, safety and sovereignty will extend beyond the electoral outcome of November 6th.
With this in mind, Gabriela, ICHRP, Malaya and many other organizations are calling for the community to sign onto the International League of People’s Struggles (ILPS) People’s Platform, and to gather for a teach-in and mobilization on Nov. 2 and 9 respectively.
“Justice for Jennifer” means ending the VFA, passing the Philippines Human Rights Act (PHRA) and the total removal of the U.S. military from Philippine soil — all steps towards genuine People’s Sovereignty in the Philippines.
