Philippine ex-mayor serving 360 years in jail for rape and murder may walk free after just 24
- Antonio Sanchez, now 70, is in prison for the 1993 rape and killing of university student Eileen Sarmenta while he led the town of Calauan
- His imminent release has raised questions about the role of his former lawyer Salvador Panelo, who is now the official spokesman for President Rodrigo Duterte
Antonio Sanchez, the 70-year-old former mayor of Calauan municipality in Laguna province, was named earlier this week as qualifying for early release because of “good behaviour”.
According to The Philippine Star, justice secretary Menardo Guevarra said Sanchez could be one of 11,000 inmates freed in the next two months under a new law increasing the rewards for good conduct. The justice chief said the legislation affected “thousands of convicts, whether they were high-profile like Sanchez, or ordinary prisoners”.
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One of Sanchez’s lawyers when he was sentenced in 1995 was Salvador Panelo, now Duterte’s official spokesman. Speculation has been rife that the now top official had a hand in Sanchez’s imminent release, but Panelo on Wednesday called such suggestions “far-fetched”.
“That was 27 years ago, and I withdrew [from the case] even before his appeal,” The Philippine Star quoted him as saying.
On June 28, 1993, Sanchez raped Eileen Sarmenta, a college girl “given” to him as a “gift” by his staff. They had kidnapped her and her boyfriend from a nearby campus. Sanchez was then mayor of Calauan, a municipality just south of Metro Manila.
After raping Sarmenta, Sanchez turned her over to six of his men who in turn raped her again and then shot her dead. Before that they murdered her boyfriend.
In 1995, after a sensational 16-month trial, Sanchez and his accomplices were sentenced to seven life terms, each of 40 years.
A year later, in another trial for a separate crime – the murder of two political rivals – Sanchez received two more life sentences.
According to a 2010 report on online news site Spot.ph, jail officials found 1kg of shabu (crystal meth) in Sanchez’s cell, stashed in a statue of the Virgin Mary. The jail director said Sanchez had tested positive for the drug.
The new law on good conduct was passed by Congress in 2013. Under the old legislation, for instance, an inmate could deduct only five days from his or her sentence for each month of good behaviour during their first two years in jail. Republic Act 10592 now allows him to deduct 20 days. A prisoner can also subtract 15 days off the sentence for every month he or she spends studying, teaching or mentoring.
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Human rights lawyer Rene Saguisag told the Post the previous Philippine government had only wanted to apply the law prospectively – meaning to convictions made after the passage of the bill. He said he and another lawyer, Michael Evangelista, had challenged then justice secretary Leila de Lima on that stance and argued “laws beneficial to accused and prisoners should apply retroactively”.
“The Supreme Court sustained us. All prisoners benefit. Good, given our horrid prison conditions,” Saguisag said.
Bureau of Corrections director general Nicanor Faeldon said his office was currently recomputing Sanchez’s sentence.
But the mother of the murdered young woman said she would try to block his release. She said in an interview with ABS-CBN she had been unable to sleep since hearing the news.
“Everything came back to me. The pain, the struggle, bringing back our lives together. Everything came back. I’m really sorry that I’m crying,” she said.
Elizabeth Angsioco, an internationally recognised women’s rights advocate, told the Post: “This news about the possible release of someone convicted for multiple counts of rape and murder is quite disturbing, particularly since the person is a former politician known to have wielded power in his town.”
She added: “While this may be legal because of the Supreme Court ruling, it sends a dangerous signal to others who are also convicted of heinous crimes, especially the rich and powerful.”
When Duterte ran for the presidency in 2016 he vowed to smash criminality and corruption. Yet his administration has seen several high-profile suspects and convicts let off the hook.
Former president Gloria Arroyo, detained since 2012 on charges of plunder, was abruptly released when Duterte assumed office. Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Bong Revilla, accused of plunder in relation to the handling of “pork barrel” special funds, were also released from detention.
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Former first lady Imelda Marcos, wife of ex-dictator Ferdinand Marcos, was convicted last November and sentenced to 77 years in jail. To this day, she has not been made to serve the sentence. The court allowed her to file a 300,000 pesos (US$5,725) bail bond for her “provisional liberty” pending appeal.
Other corruption charges against the Marcos family were recently dismissed.
Duterte, who was mayor of Davao City before he became president, gained notoriety for a crude joke he made during his presidential campaign. Narrating how he had helped storm a prison where inmates had taken hostages, he recalled that those held against their will had been raped and died during a shoot-out. One was a young female American missionary.
“I was angry because she was raped, that’s one thing. But she was so beautiful, the mayor should have been first. What a waste,” Duterte said.
