Panelo to Rappler, Inquirer: Rectify report, apologize or I will file libel charges

Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo on Wednesday demanded from Rappler and Inquirer.net a public apology and correction to their reports on his supposed involvement in the application for executive clemency of convicted murderer-rapist Antonio Sanchez.

Panelo on Tuesday threatened to file libel charges against the two media outfits for claiming in their reports that he endorsed to the Board of Pardons and Parole (BPP) the request of the family of Sanchez, his former client, to release him from prison through a presidential pardon.

“I will be filing libel cases against the reporters of Inquirer.net and Rappler, Inc. should they fail to comply with my demand for a public apology and rectification,” he said.

“It is clear that they have publicly and maliciously imputed to me an act, if not a crime, a vice or defect, which caused the dishonor, discredit or contempt of my person.”

Rappler said Panelo’s libel threat was just a diversionary tactic and that he allegedly used the power of the Office of the President to endorse to the BPP the letter of Sanchez’s daughter, Marie Antonelvie, asking for favorable recommendation from the Palace official regarding the former Laguna mayor’s plea for pardon.

Panelo hit back, saying his plan to file a libel case against the reporter of Rappler was “not a diversionary tactic but an act by one who feels aggrieved by a malicious imputation made against his honor and character.”

“Media has been called the Fourth Estate owing to its enormous power to inform and influence,” he said.

“Simply put, members of the press can build and destroy reputations. I therefore have to defend myself against baseless attacks, even insinuations, from irresponsible and sensational media.”

He insisted that Marie Antonelvie’s letter, just like thousands of others before it, was simply referred to the appropriate office for its action.

Panelo, who also met with Sanchez’s family twice in February amid the clemency plea, said his office merely fulfilled the commitment of President Rodrigo Duterte “to lend an ear to all those who require assistance.”

“And this is what the OCPLC [Office of the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel] performed when it referred the letter of the daughter of Mr. Sanchez to the BPP. Failing otherwise would mean that we have resorted to discrimination and inaction, which may then subject us from punitive sanction,” he said.

“My entertaining them in my office and referring their concern to the appropriate body denote that everything is aboveboard and there was nothing clandestine.”

Panelo added he has served his posts as Duterte’s spokesperson and chief legal counsel “with a high degree of professionalism and integrity as I comply with the order of the President to uphold transparency, good governance and immediate action on matters affecting the welfare of the people.”

“I have been upfront to our people ever since the Sanchez case has been in the news. I have no reason to fear or fret. Truth is my compass and I know that it will serve me well,” he said.

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. —LDF, GMA News