Ombudsman completes recovery of ex-Calauan Mayor Sanchez’s ill-gotten wealth

The Office of the Ombudsman has completed the recovery of the alleged ill-gotten wealth of convicted rapist and murderer Antonio Sanchez.

In a press statement on Tuesday, the Ombudsman said it has seized 19 real properties all located in Calauan, Laguna from Sanchez and his wife Editha as of March 1.

The properties were part of the illegal wealth of Sanchez and are now registered under the name of the Republic of the Philippines based on the Transfer Certificates of Title (TCT) obtained by the Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman said the TCTs had been forwarded to the Bureau of Treasury.

In its decision on July 18, 2016, the Sandiganbayan ordered the forfeiture of Sanchez’ the real properties. It also ruled for the recovery of a residential building, three luxury vehicles, shares in his lending business, and P246,120 in cash and bank accounts.

The Sandiganbayan said the wealth of then-Calauan mayor Sanchez was disproportionate with his maximum monthly salary of P17,724 from 1980 to 1981, P26,388 from 1981 to 1986, and P10,443 in 1988.

His salary includes a per diem of P992 per municipal counsel session, or a monthly total of P3,968.

The Ombudsman said the assets of Sanchez also contradict the income tax returns he and his wife filed from 1986 to 1992 worth a total of P855,073.88.

This came around the time Sanchez was convicted by the Laguna Regional Trial Court of rape and murder of UP student Aileen Sarmenta in 1993 as well as of the murder of Sarmenta’s boyfriend Allan Gomez.

The Supreme Court upheld the Laguna RTC’s ruling in 1999 against Sanchez, who is currently serving his sentence of seven terms of reclusion perpetua at the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City.

Lavish lifestyle

The Sandiganbayan found that Sanchez was able to send three of his children to Hurtwood House, an exclusive school in London where fees can go as high as P1 million per student; and spend vacation in the United States, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and Hong Kong despite his salary as mayor of a then-fourth class municipality.

Sanchez also allegedly held a birthday party at the Manila Hotel with 550 guests and acquired a house and lot.

“We find that respondents’ assets and expenses are grossly and manifestly disproportionate to their legitimate income and thus, these assets and the funds used for the disproportionate expenses were unlawfully acquired, and hence, subject to forfeiture,” the Sandiganbayan said in its ruling.

The Sandiganbayan explained that it took more than two decades for the case to be resolved due to "attempts at arriving at an amicable settlement, not to mention numerous postponements granted by the Court."

"It is evident that a large chunk of the blame for the years of delay must lie with the respondents who, for a time, managed to persuade this Court to suspend trial in order to give the parties a chance to settle the case amicably," the decision read.

"Later on, it became clear that respondents’ supposed attempts at compromise were hollow and insincere serving no other purpose than significantly halting the trial. Add to that, this case was also plagued with an extraordinary number of postponements sought by respondents because of their revolving door of lawyers,” it added. —NB, GMA News