MANILA, Philippines — “Why will we pay?”
The wife of rape-slay convict Antonio Sanchez said this yesterday as she insisted on the innocence of the former mayor of Calauan, Laguna.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) may initiate moves to compel Sanchez to pay his victims’ families P12.67 million in damages as ordered by the court in 1995.
The possibility of the DOJ seeking a writ of execution or an order from a court to enforce its ruling arose yesterday during the inquiry of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, where it was disclosed that Sanchez has not complied with the order of the Pasig City regional trial court to pay P12,671,900 in damages to the families of University of the Philippines-Los Baños students Mary Eileen Sarmenta and Allan Gomez.
Sanchez and six of his henchmen were sentenced to seven life terms or 40 years in prison for the 1993 rape-slay of Sarmenta and the murder of Gomez, a crime that then presiding judge Harriet Demetriou described as “seemingly hatched in hell.”
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon asked Sanchez’s wife Elvira during the hearing whether or not they have any intention to pay the mandated damages.
“We’ve always said repeatedly that why will we pay when my husband did not commit the crime,” Elvira replied.
Drilon countered that no less than the Supreme Court upheld Demetriou’s ruling, but Sanchez’s wife maintained that they have no intention to comply with it.
Elvira maintained her husband was with his family when the rape and murder occurred, but the senator said the courts did not believe the alibi.
“You’ve been asking for executive clemency and mercy but you refuse to pay (damages)?” Drilon said.
The senator then asked Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra what could be the remedy for such a case, to which the justice secretary replied that the issuance of a writ of execution could be one.
Guevarra, however, said it could be more appropriate if the victims’ private lawyers made representations with the court to compel Sanchez to pay damages.
Drilon pointed out that while the matter takes on the nature of a civil case, private lawyers cannot move without the concurrence of government prosecutors.
“Justice dictates that your prosecutors must move (for writ of execution),” the senator said.
“We can try doing that but our legal status may be questioned… but we can assist the private counsels,” Guevarra replied.
He said such a move may run into “a little problem” as the case was resolved in 1995 and there is a 10-year prescriptive period for the compliance on the conviction, particularly the payment of damages.
Guevarra said such a move should have been done by his predecessors before the prescriptive period expired.
“Why don’t you let the court decide on that, let Sanchez oppose but at least show to the people that we are consistent in the pursuit of justice and leave it to the courts, leave it to the Supreme Court,” Drilon said.
“We can do so,” Guevarra said.
Cellphone records
Senate President Vicente Sotto III ordered the Senate secretariat to get the cellphone records of Sanchez’s wife to identify the person who informed the relatives that the convict would soon be released.
Sanchez’s wife Elvira disclosed yesterday during a Senate public hearing that she got a tip on her husband’s supposed release last Aug. 20 as senators speculate that some corrupt personnel of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) are making money from rich prisoners using the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) act.
Mrs. Sanchez said she received a text message from someone in the afternoon of Aug. 20 that her husband was about to be released from the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa.
Sotto, Senate Blue Ribbon committee chairman Sen. Richard Gordon and Drilon took turns asking Elvira who sent her the text message about the supposed impending release of Sanchez, but she insisted that she did not know.
She said the sender of the message was unknown, information the senators refused to swallow.
“On the basis of (a text from) an unknown (number), you would like us to believe that may tumawag sa inyo punta kayo kaagad? Totoo ba yun?” Gordon noted.
When Sotto asked if Elvira knew the number of the sender, she said she could not remember.
Elvira even claimed that she doesn’t have the cellphone after she threw away the phone because she had been receiving death threats. She, however, claimed to have kept her prepaid SIM card.
Sotto requested the Senate secretariat to get the prepaid number of Elvira so they can trace the sender.
Elvira said she and her children, Councilor Abby Sanchez and former councilor Allan Sanchez, met BuCor director Nicanor Faeldon only on Aug. 21, a day after the supposed release of former mayor Sanchez.
“On Aug. 21, we went to his (Faeldon’s) office to clarify the things in the news that we heard is that my husband was about to (be) released. And then he told me Mrs. may bago ako directive sa baba first in first out,” Elvira added. “He said about 11,000 prisoners will be released in two months.”
Gordon pointed out that Elvira managed to see Faeldon on short notice.
“Ututan dila kayo, he volunteered the information to you that 11,000 prisoners will be released.”
Faeldon said all the violations of the former mayor in prison do not reflect in the records of Sanchez’s carpeta.
Drilon said either there was corruption or negligence. “It is obvious there are a lot of violations.”
Lenient law
DOJ Undersecretary Deo Marco conceded yesterday that the expanded GCTA law is too lenient for inmates.
“I think the allowance given is too high. Otherwise, this (prison controversy) would not have happened. That is my personal opinion,” Marco told Compostela Valley Rep. Ruwel Peter Gonzaga during the briefing held by the House committee on justice led by Leyte Rep. Vicente Veloso.
Rep. Jericho Nograles of party-list Partido ng Bayaning Atleta said that the BuCor issued conflicting figures with regard to the real number of inmates released in relation to GCTA since it became law in 2013.
Marco apologized when Nograles said it was unacceptable that the DOJ blamed the law when the problem was the implementing rules and regulations, as he pointed out that the discrepancy between official data and media reports was around 1,500.
The DOJ official suggested to the Veloso committee that BuCor provide the panel with a copy of members of the Management Screening and Evaluation Committee (MSEC) on how the 2,160 inmates were released.
“The erroneous recommendations of MSEC should be subject to administrative and criminal complaints,” Nograles said.
Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, for his part, said Faeldon should be held liable for the unlawful release of prisoners convicted of heinous crimes when it was very clear that they are not eligible under the GCTA law.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, meantime, described the controversy as a massive jailbreak hatched by prison officials under the guise of the GCTA law, which in fact runs counter to the law itself.
“The reckless and illicit implementation of the GCTA by prison officials like Faeldon should not go unpunished,” he said.
Meanwhile, the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said the revelations that criminals convicted of heinous crimes were released under questionable circumstances discredit the government’s campaign against crime and corruption.
According to the hearing at the House of Representatives, under the current administration, 1,714 persons convicted of heinous crimes were released through the GCTA. Of these, 745 were convicted of rape, 748 for murder, 32 for kidnapping and 156 for ilegal drugs.
“The entire process of releasing convicts seems mired in irregularities, lack of transparency and possibly corruption. There is no oversight, no transparency and apparently no safeguards against abuse and corruption. Everything is left to the discretion of the BuCor director,” said Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes.
“That so many persons convicted of heinous crimes were released under the Duterte regime shows the lack of credibility of the war on criminality. The present regime claims it wants to protect the people from crime but criminals are let loose,” Reyes said.
The group said Malacañang need not wait for the congressional hearings to conclude before taking action against Faeldon and company. – Delon Porcalla, Rhodina Villanueva