Manila: The mother of the transgender slain by an American serviceman expressed outrage over the absence of President Benigno Aquino at the wake held for her son.

“Were you not touched at all when you saw photos that showed how my son was brutally murdered? You are a Filipino. [But] you are nothing,” said teary-eyed Julita Laude, who vented her anger at Aquino after she saw on Wednesday a series of photos of how Jeffrey Laude, also known as Jennifer, was killed with her head sunk deep into a toilet bowl in the bathroom of Calzone Lodge in Olongapo City last October 11.

“You are a liar,” Laude said during a forum held by students and professors at the College of Law of the premier University of the Philippines.

Earlier, excusing himself from attending the wake for Laude, Aquino had said, “In general, I don’t attend wakes of people I don’t know.”

“I’m uncomfortable in trying to condole with people who don’t know me. It’s like how can I say that I really sympathise with their loss and have some relevant discussion with them on trying to assuage their loss at that point in time?” Aquino added.

Dante Jimenez, founding chair of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) chastised Aquino, saying he was “unpresidential” to the grieving Laude family.

“He does not want to earn popular points [by going to wakes],” explained Secretary to the Cabinet Jose Rene Almendras.

Laude was buried in Olongapo last October 24.

US Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton was identified as Laude’s alleged killer. The incident occurred a day after the end of joint war games held by American and Filipino soldiers in the Philippines.

Pemberton was detained in a 20-foot container van that was deployed at Camp Aguinaldo, headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in suburban Quezon City. US soldiers were deployed to guard him inside the van, while Filipino soldiers were tasked to watch from outside of the van.

Laude’s murder and the US’s exercise of custody over Pemberton have sparked calls for the scrapping of the United States-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

Signed in 1998 and ratified by the Philippine Congress in 1999, the VFA has served as a guideline for the holding of joint war games between the US and the Philippines since 2000.