MEMBERS of the House of Representatives, like their Senate counterparts, are alarmed by reports of the impending release of convicted rapist and murderer Antonio Sanchez, the former Calauan mayor serving seven life terms in the case of Aileen Sarmenta and Alan Gomez, University of the Philippines at Los Banos students.
Senate leaders aghast, set probe of Sanchez’s impending release
In a news conference, ACT-CIS Rep. Eric Yap said he wrote a letter to Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra to lodge an appeal against the application of the new Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) rule.
Menardo had said Sanchez might be released following a Supreme Court decision applying a 2013 law expanding GCTA.
According to Yap, he will study the needed amendments to Republic Act (RA) 10592 on the conditional expanded GCTA.
“There is a need for a strict review and careful recompilation of the law to ensure those who will be released went through proper rehabilitation and are ready to be integrated in the society. Furthermore, the severity of the crime should also be put into consideration in the implementation of GCTA,” the lawmaker said.
In 1995, Sanchez was sentenced to seven counts of reclusion perpetua over the murder of the two UPLB students. Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, the justice secretary when Sanchez was convicted, said it is impossible for Sanchez to benefit from the GCTA rule given the 280 years he must serve in jail (each reclusion perpetua is for 40 years).
In a letter dated August 22, Yap said that he is mainly concerned with the “imaginable consequences” of the early release of thousands of prisoners benefitting from the GCTA rule.
“We would like to most respectfully appeal to immediately put on hold the release of persons deprived of liberty [PDL] benefitting from the new Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) rule providing the re-computation of GCTA for supposed good conduct,” he said.
“From your statement last August 21, 2019, thousands of PDL are expected to be released within the next two months as by operation of law and the result last June compelling for the retroactive computation of GCTA,” he added.
Garbin: Only deserving must benefit
For his part, Rep. Alfredo Garbin Jr., vice chairman of the House Committee on Justice, said he will file a resolution to investigate and to make sure that RA 10592 on the conditional expanded GCTA is properly implemented and that only those inmates who showed good behavior can apply for the same.
“Maybe these convicted drug lords who are serving sentence and testified during the 17th Congress in the Committee on Justice that they run a drug operation in collusion with the BOC personnel will benefit from this,” he said.
“The DOJ can take judicial notice of their testimony during our drug hearing in the Justice committee. To me certainly that admission goes against good behavior,” he added.
Garbin said RA 10592 should be reviewed to exclude from its coverage those persons convicted of heinous crimes, just like that of Sanchez.