Turns out that the four Marine witnesses, Pemberton's 'liberty buddies', have already left the Philippines.
Having given their sworn statements in accordance with Filipino law, the DFA says "they were free to go".
The USG has said the witnesses will be brought back for the trial, as required.
All up front and within the terms of the VFA agreement, although it will cause more hysterical wailing from the gays, commies, trannies, etc, etc who are using this murder to further their own causes.
Perhaps muted a bit by today's statement by the Filipino President that "this crime will have no impact on the VFA" "It was a crime" "All countries have crimes" "it will be dealt with as such and the Americans will act within the VFA agreement" "there is no reason to even speak of scrapping the VFA".