Kids deny Sanchez was able to leave prison at will

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)

CALAUAN, Laguna, Philippines — Alleged sightings of convicted murderer and rapist Antonio Sanchez, a former mayor of Calauan town in Laguna, spending time outside of the New Bilibid Prison are not true, his family said on Tuesday.

Several posts on social media indicated that Sanchez was already set free and allegedly seen in Calauan, even before reports of his looming release surfaced.

These reports are false and based merely on hearsay, according to Allan Antonio Sanchez, the former mayor’s eldest child.

“Prove it. Do you have evidence? Have you seen him go home or spend time with the family?” Allan Antonio, speaking in Filpino, told some reporters in an interview in the Sanchez house in Calauan.

Allan Antonio also clarified that a photo circulating on social media showing the former mayor with a woman in a room with items such as a refrigerator and a sofa was taken at the Ospital ng Muntinlupa where he was confined for a week due to kidney failure.

The woman in the photo, he said, was their sister, Ave Marie Tonee, adding that his father’s getting medical assistance outside prison was the result of going through the proper process.

On March 11, 1995, Sanchez and six of his bodyguards were found guilty of seven counts of homicide in the death of Sarmenta and her companion, Allan Gomez and Sarmenta’s rape in 1993.

/atm