CALAUAN, Laguna, Philippines — The family of convicted murderer and rapist Antonio Sanchez, a former mayor of Calauan town in Laguna, on Tuesday left one message to the kin left behind by slain University of the Philippines – Los Baños students Eileen Sarmenta and Allan Gomez: “We have not achieved justice yet.”
“Mrs. Gomez, Mrs. Sarmenta, we are one with you. We are both victims. We have not achieved justice,” Allan Antonio, the former mayor’s eldest child, told a few members of the press in an interview at their house in Calauan.
READ: Antonio Sanchez, more than 10k other inmates to get out of prison ‘soon’
Allan Antonio also lamented how his family and the Sarmenta and Gomez families were all victims in this case.
“[The Sarmenta and Gomez families] let themselves get carried away. They let themselves be used,” he said in Filipino. “To this day, I believe that we were all victims here.”
Antonio Sanchez, former mayor of Calauan, Laguna province, who is serving nine 40-year terms at the New Bilibid Prison, changed from prison garb to civvies on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019. Maybe he was expecting to be freed anytime soon. (Photo by GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
He also insisted on his father’s innocence in the death of Sarmenta and Gomez, saying that if another investigation would be needed to prove their patriarch’s innocence, they would cooperate and extend all the help they could.
“Maybe you will understand that it is painful for us to see our father in prison,” he said. “But to tell you the truth, my father had nothing to do with it. If an investigation is needed to find out who really did it, we will help.”
READ: Sanchez kin: ‘Let bullets hit us if our father is guilty’
The Sanchez children (from left) — Anthony Collioni, Allan Antonio, and Marie Antonelvie — talked on Tuesday to some reporters in the house in Calauan, Laguna. (Photo by CATHY MIRANDA / INQUIRER.net)
Earlier, Sarmenta’s mother, Maria Clara, questioned the basis of the possible early release of Sanchez, despite reports that the former mayor committed several violations while serving his sentence at the New Bilibid Prison — including being caught keeping a packet of illegal drugs.
Mrs. Sarmenta also asked if “money talked” in Sanchez’s possible early release.
“How could they say that he was well-behaved there?” she said, speaking in Filipino, in an interview with AM radio station DZMM. “We are wondering about that. As a mother, as a citizen who thinks properly, what we are saying is: Did money talk there?”
READ: Did money talk? Rape-slay victim’s mom asks amid looming release of convicted ex-mayor
Meanwhile, Gomez’s mother, Iluminada, said that releasing Sanchez from prison would only put years of their fight for justice to waste.
“Only our case had brought the end [to Sanchez], hopefully, and the awakening, hopefully. But people have a short memory, no?” Iluminada told reporters.
“Here came an event [Allan’s murder] that, although painful, had awakened people. We thought it would continue, but it did not — simply because our government system is not protecting our people,” she added.
On March 11, 1995, Sanchez and six of his bodyguards were found guilty of seven counts of murder in the 1993 killing of Sarmenta and her companion, Allan Gomez. They were also found guilty of raping.
READ: WHAT WENT BEFORE: ‘A plot seemingly hatched in hell’
But recently, the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) announced Sanchez was one of the more than 10,000 inmates who might benefit from Republic Act No. 10592, which increased the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) given to inmates.
The GCTA provides additional time to be deducted from an inmate’s prison sentence as a reward for good behavior.
The BuCor then clarified that Sanchez might not be eligible for an early release amid public uproar over the news.
READ: DOJ, BuCor: Sanchez ineligible for release
/atm