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”.
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.
