MANILA – Former Calauan mayor Antonio Sanchez maintained his innocence over two decades of being incarcerated for masterminding the rape and murder of a university student in 1993.
Sanchez on Friday said “he has nothing to do” with the rape and murder of University of the Philippines Los Baños student Mary Eileen Sarmenta and the murder of her friend Allan Gomez.
“Wala naman akong involvement d’yan. ‘Yan naman ay love triangle, itinapon lang sa Calauan tapos ikinarga sa akin,” Sanchez said.
“Talagang ako’y walang kasalanan,” he added. “Kung talagang susundin ang batas makakalaya na po ako, 48 years na po ako nakakulong. Marami na ho akong nagawang kabutihan, sa simbahan, lahat ng tulong binibigay ko.”
Earlier this week, the Department of Justice said Sanchez could be one of the beneficiaries after authorities re-compute deductions from his sentence for good conduct.
Republic Act 10592 amends provisions of the law on the sentence reductions of a convicted prisoner or an inmate on preventive imprisonment based on good conduct.
The law was initially made prospective in application, meaning it will only apply to cases that occurred after it was enacted in 2013 but a Supreme Court verdict on June 25 changed the application to retroactive, effectively covering more inmates.
Sanchez’s good conduct time allowances were recomputed by the Bureau of Corrections, its attached agency, and that Sanchez could be a free man following 2013 amendments to provisions of the Revised Penal Code on good conduct time grants.
But Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo on Friday said Sanchez cannot be a beneficiary of the 2013 law.
“Mr. Sanchez, under Republic Act 10592 is not eligible. So the President as chief enforcer of the law will have to follow the law,” said Panelo, Sanchez’s former defense counsel./PN
Ngaa sa time ni duterte tanan nga corrupt,rapist kag drug lord gagwa may justice ay amu na gali?