Sa panayam noon ng Radyo Inquirer kay Sanchez sa maximum security compound ng New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) sinabi nitong kwalipikado na siya noon para mapagkalooban ng pardon o parole.
Katunayan, noong 2010 sa tingin ni Sanchez ay “overqualified” na siya para sa mabigyan ng pardon.
Ipinakita pa noon ni Sanchez sa Radyo Inquirer ang nangingitim at kinakalyo niyang tuhod dahil sa patuloy umanong pamamanata niya kay Virgin Mary habang nakakulong.
Narito ang kabuuan ng report ng Radyo Inquirer na unang naisapubliko sa Philippine Daily Inquirer noong December 24, 2010:
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LAGUNA RAPIST-KILLER ALSO WANTS OUT OF JAIL
Philippine Daily Inquirer | 24 Dec 2010 | By Chona Yu and Volt Contreras
A former mayor sentenced to more than 300 years in jail for rape and murder wants to join the December procession out of prison.
Claiming he’s now eligible for either pardon or parole, ex-mayor Antonio Sanchez of Calauan, Laguna, contemplates a return to politics and a long vacation with his family, possibly including a pilgrimage to Israel.
And apparently he’s still got the legs for it.
“Look at my knees,” Sanchez said on Wednesday in Filipino in an interview with Radyo Inquirer at the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa City. “Yet they say my devotion to the Virgin Mary is just all drama.”
He was showing off his knees, which he said had become dark skinned and calloused after years of Marian devotion and praying the rosary—especially throughout his 18 years behind bars as one of the VIP inmates at the NBP.
Sanchez was meted out seven life terms for the 1993 killings of University of the Philippines students and sweethearts Eileen Sarmenta and Allan Gomez. Sarmenta was also raped after being presented as a “gift” to Sanchez by his henchmen.
‘Hatched in hell’
In her decision, then Pasig Regional Trial Court Judge Harriet Demetriou described the whole sordid affair as “a plot seemingly hatched in hell.”
After a 16-month trial, Demetriou in March 1995 found Sanchez and six of his cohorts guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of rape with homicide on seven counts.
The 57-year-old Sanchez said he was now “qualified” for pardon or parole, but that he had not yet applied for it.
“I’m actually overqualified, but I’m not yet pursuing it because there’s still something I need to take care of,” he said.
In 2006, Sanchez was charged with possession of illegal drugs after a prison guard found him to be allegedly keeping a packet of shabu and marijuana, along with drug paraphernalia.
In the interview, Sanchez maintained he was merely “framed” for the drug charges.
‘I can still win’
Still sporting his trademark combed-over hair-do, Sanchez spoke lengthily and almost with relish about him soon joining the likes of Hubert Webb et al., who were recently acquitted in another sensational criminal case in the 1990s, the Vizconde massacre.
Two days after Webb and company were released, another VIP detainee, former Maj. Gen. Carlos F. Garcia, was freed on bail after being held for six years on plunder charges.
Earlier this week, a Makati City court granted Sen. Antonio Trillanes, on trial for coup d’etat, provisional liberty.
“Perhaps I can let go of some of our properties,” he said of his future plans. “Go on a tour, give thanks to God, take a trip to Israel, vacation with the family, things like that.”
“No, no!” he said of the prospect of spending the rest of his life in the slammer. “I still plan to run for office when I get out be- cause I can still win—especially if I run for mayor. For governor? That I cannot tell. But for mayor, I don’t think there’s anyone out there who can beat me.”
Politics blamed
Maintaining his innocence despite his being convicted of one of the most heinous crimes in Philippine history, Sanchez said he never had any “breakdown” while in prison “because my faith in God is strong.”
He blamed “dirty politics” for his misfortune—and even named one particular politician as the cause of all his woes.
“I was in prison for a crime I did not commit,” he said, adding that the case got “twisted just because I was a political enemy of (then President Fidel) Ramos.”
“If I were a rapist, how come my wife also got elected mayor? How come my children also got elected?” he added. “How come my constituents and other politicians in Laguna continue to pay me a visit?
“I remained strong because, even before (my conviction), I was already a religious man devoted to Mama Mary. Every first Sunday of December, we had a procession … I’ve also read the Book of Job. That’s how I understood that we really go through such trials.”
360 years in jail
In January 1999, the Supreme Court affirmed the guilty verdict of the Pasig RTC. Six months later that same year, Sanchez was given a double life term by the Supreme Court in a different case.
With his seven life terms for the Sarmenta-Gomez rape-slay, Sanchez will have to spend a total of 360 years in jail. With a report from Schatzi Quodala, Inquirer Research
https://www.pressreader.com/philippines/philippine-daily-inquirer-1109/20101224/285074160469607