Bureau of Corrections Director General Nicanor Faeldon attends the Senate hearing on GCTA law on Monday, Sept. 2, 2019. (Photo by CATHY MIRANDA / INQUIRER.net )
MANILA, Philippines — Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Nicanor Faeldon admitted meeting the family of convicted rapist and murderer Antonio Sanchez. He said, however, that he did not give them an assurance that the former mayor of Calauan, Laguna would be released.
Answering questions from Sen. Risa Hontiveros during Monday’s Senate probe reviewing the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) law, Faeldon said Sanchez’s relatives went to his office to talk to him.
“Evening of July 29, I was already resting in my quarters when I was informed by one of my staff that [the family] of PDL [person deprived of liberty] Sanchez would want to talk to me. That’s already 9 [p.m.]. So I said that can you [staff] request that if it’s possible, if it’s okay with them, bukas na lang ng office time natin sila kausapin,” the BuCor chief recalled.
“Bumalik yung aking staff at sabi: ‘Hindi raw sila aalis pag di mo sila hinarap.’ So, I was shocked, hindi talaga ko lumabas,” he added.
Faeldon said the former mayor’s relatives arrived in his office early the next day.
“They cried. So I told them: ‘If your father is going to be qualified for GCTA just like the rest of the PDL that’s going to be the case since he will be released, but that is really depending on whether or not he will be qualified for GCTA’,” he said.
“So, there was never an assurance,” he added.
The family of Sanchez earlier said a release order for the high-profile convict dated Aug. 20 had already been issued.
But during the Senate hearing, Faeldon said he only signed a memorandum ordering which would start the processing of all documents for an inmate’s release.
The Senate justice and human rights committee is set to conduct another hearing on Tuesday.
According to its chair, Sen. Richard Gordon, Sanchez’s family were invited to attend.
“Ininvite namin hindi dumating eh. So, iimbitahin ko sila ulit, dahil importante yun,” Gordon told reporters after the hearing.
Asked if he would issue a subpoena obligating the former mayor’s family to show up at the Senate, Gordon said: “Hindi ko padadalan ng subpoena. I will tell them kung ‘di sila pupunta [sa next hearing] eh isa-subpoena na namin.
In 1995, Sanchez was sentenced to seven life imprisonments for the gruesome murder of two University of the Philippines – Los Baños students two years prior.
But reports of the former mayor’s impending release under the GCTA brought the brutal case back into the public spotlight after more than 20 years.
It also triggered outrage which prompted the Department of Justice to suspend the processing of the early release of inmates under the GCTA law.
/atm