Panelo: Non-payment of P12-M indemnity may extend Sanchez’s jail time

MANILA, Philippines — Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said Wednesday that the failure of ex-mayor Antonio Sanchez’s family to indemnify the families of his victims may lengthen the jail time of the convicted rapist and murderer.

Panelo was reacting to the pronouncement of Sanchez matriarch, Elvira, during a Senate inquiry on Tuesday that they have no intention of paying the P12.67 million in damages awarded by the court to the families of the victims, Eileen Sarmenta and Allan Gomez, as indemnity.

READ: Sanchez kin not paying P12-M damages in Sarmenta-Gomez case

“I don’t know if I remember my law correctly, I think kapag hindi nakapagbayad ay madadagdagan iyon ano mo, number of years sa ano mo, sa kulungan,” Panelo said in an interview over CNN Philippines.

“Kumbaga, kapag hindi nakabayad on a particular amount of money, may equivalent number of days na idadagdag,” he added.

Panelo, who is also President Rodrigo Duterte’s chief legal counsel, served as one of the lawyers of Sanchez in the 1993 rape-slay of Sarmenta and murder of Gomez, both students of the University of the Philippines in Los Baños, Laguna.

Panelo also said that the Department of Justice (DOJ) may ask the court to issue a writ of execution to facilitate the transfer of Sanchez’s properties, a move earlier suggested by Senator Franklin Drilon during the Senate hearing on the supposed release of convicted felons due to the law that shortens prison terms for good behavior.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra has agreed that DOJ could try doing that, or assist the private counsel handling the civil aspect of the case. /kga