MANILA, Philippines — Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo confirmed Tuesday that he had met with the family of rape-murder convict, former Calauan, Laguna mayor Antonio Sanchez, in his office in Malacañang but insists he never had “personal communication” with them.
Panelo made the admission after denying that his office “endorsed” to the Board of Pardons and Parole (BPP) the grant of executive clemency to Sanchez.
READ: BPP: Panelo referred Sanchez’s bid for clemency
READ: Panelo denies endorsing Sanchez’s bid for clemency: I merely referred letter
Panelo, who is also President Rodrigo Duterte’s legal counsel, served as one of the lawyers of Sanchez in the 1993 rape and murder of University of the Philippines Los Baños student Eileen Sarmenta, and the murder of her friend, Allan Gomez.
“What is important is I told them exactly (that) the Bureau of Corrections would be the one to determine whether or not your application will be approved or not. We can’t do anything about it. We always have to follow the law,” Panelo said in a Palace briefing.
This was in stark contrast to Panelo’s earlier pronouncements when he denied any communication with the family of his former client.
But the Palace official insisted that “there’s nothing personal in communicating” with the family of the ex-Calauan mayor.
“It’s all official,” he said.
Panelo then stressed that there’s “no need to be transparent” about the meeting because it is “recorded.”
“In fact, that is transparency. When you record the visit when you record the request when you record the response, that is transparency,” he said.
He also said he had told Duterte about the meeting.
According to Panelo, the meeting came after Sanchez’s children sent to his office via e-mail the application of their father for executive clemency.
Panelo, however, could not recall the exact date of his meeting with Sanchez’s family.
At the second Senate hearing on the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) law on Tuesday, BPP Executive Director Reynaldo Bayang revealed that Panelo wrote to him on February 26 this year, referring a letter written by Sanchez’s daughter, Marie Antonelvie, regarding the pardon application of her father. BPP dismissed in December 2018 Sanchez’s petition for executive clemency.
BPP upheld the dismissal of Sanchez’s appeal in a decision dated February 27, a day after Panelo wrote to the bureau. /kga