Panelo on Sanchez case: Failure to pay damages may lengthen convict’s jail time

Failure to pay damages may lengthen a convict’s time in prison, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Wednesday, after the family of his former client, Antonio Sanchez, refused to indemnify the victims in the Sarmenta-Gomez rape-slay case.

Sanchez’s wife, Elvira, told a Senate inquiry on Tuesday that they have no intention of paying P12.67 million in damages to the families of Eileen Sarmenta and Allan Gomez as directed by the Supreme Court, as they insisted on the former Laguna mayor’s innocence.

“I think kapag hindi nakapagbayad ay madadagdagan iyong number of years sa sa kulungan. Kumbaga, kapag hindi nakabayad on a particular amount of money, may equivalent number of days na idadagdag. Iyon ang alam ko during my law days. Hindi ko alam kung nabago na iyon,” Panelo said in an interview on CNN Philippines.

Another option, Panelo said, was to ask the court to issue a writ of execution to facilitate the transfer of Sanchez’s properties. 

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra told senators on Tuesday that his department will pursue legal remedies to force Sanchez to compensate the victims.

Sanchez was sentenced to lengthy jail terms in 1995 for raping and killing University of the Philippines-Los Baños student Eileen Sarmenta and murdering her friend and fellow UPLB student Allan Gomez in 1993.

Panelo served as one of Sanchez’s lawyers during the trial. — Virgil Lopez/RSJ, GMA News