Member of U.S. Military Questioned in Death of Filipino

OLONGAPO CITY, Philippines — The Philippine police and United States Navy officials are investigating whether a member of the United States military killed a 26-year-old Filipino cross-dresser in a hotel over the weekend, the police said Monday.

Superintendent Pedrito Delos Reyes of the Philippine police said Monday that the United States Naval Criminal Investigative Service was questioning a member of the United States military in connection with the death on Saturday of the Filipino, Jeffrey Laude, a resident of Olongapo City.

“I cannot confirm if it is a member of the Marines or Air Force, but generally speaking it is a member of the U.S. Armed Forces,” Mr. Delos Reyes said of the suspect being questioned in the death.

More than a thousand United States Marines and sailors have been in the Philippines for 10 days of military exercises. Hundreds of members of the United States military have been in the former Subic Bay Naval Base, adjacent to this city, where some of the exercises were held.

The episode comes at a particularly sensitive time for military relations between the United States and the Philippines. The two countries signed an agreement in April that would increase the total of United States personnel, ships, planes and equipment that could be positioned in the Philippines.

The Philippine government has said that it needs the support of the United States military to better prepare for external threats, including territorial disputes that the Philippines has with China in the South China Sea. The military agreement is being contested in the Philippine Supreme Court by several Filipino groups opposed to greater United States military involvement in the Philippines.

The police declined to name the United States military member being questioned in the case on Saturday. According to a police statement, witnesses said that a white non-Filipino man, 25 to 30, with a “Marine haircut” met Mr. Laude, who was dressed as a woman, at the Ambyanz nightclub in Olongapo City and that the two checked into the nearby Celzone Lodge.

The foreigner left the room about 30 minutes later, and Mr. Laude’s body, which showed wounds in the neck, was discovered by hotel workers. The police statement said that Mr. Laude had told a friend at the nightclub that the foreigner thought he was a woman, and asked the friend to not disclose that he was a man.

Local media reports said that the United States military member was being held on the Peleliu, an amphibious assault ship that has been anchored in Subic Bay during the military exercises.

“The Philippine government must assert national sovereignty and jurisdiction over the American soldier,” said Renato Reyes Jr., secretary general of the group Bayan, which opposes United States military involvement in the Philippines. “He must not be allowed to leave the country and should be immediately turned over to Philippine authorities for proper investigation and detention.”

In 2006, Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith, a United States Marine, was convicted of raping a Filipino woman he met at a nightclub inside the Subic Bay Freeport Zone. The conviction of Lance Corporal Smith was later overturned, but the case has been cited as an example of the problems associated with an increased American military presence in the Philippines.

Under an agreement between the two countries, the Philippines retains jurisdiction over criminal acts committed by members of the United States military in the Philippines. The Philippine police said on Monday that suspects other than the United States military member were also being considered.

“There are many foreigners living in Olongapo City,” said the Olongapo City police spokeswoman, Mary Ann Sadaba. “The witness identified the suspect as having a ‘Marine haircut’ so everyone assumed it was a Marine, but we cannot confirm that yet. We are still investigating.”