Antonio Sanchez, thousands of convicts freed soon —Guevarra

Antonio Sanchez, the Calauan, Laguna mayor who was convicted for the 1993 rape and murder of college student Eileen Sarmenta, may soon be released from prison as authorities recompute deductions from his sentence for good conduct.

Sanchez is one of thousands of inmates eligible for the recomputation of good conduct time allowances on the basis of Republic Act No. 10592 and a Supreme Court ruling that made the effectivity of the law retroactive, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Tuesday.

Thousands of inmates could be released within the next two months, Guevarra told reporters in a phone interview.

Guevarra would not say how soon freedom could come for Sanchez, who is detained at the New Bilibid Prison.

The Pasig Regional Trial Court convicted Sanchez of rape and murder for Sarmenta's death and of murder for the killing of Sarmenta's friend, Allan Gomez, in 1995.

Both were students of the University of the Philippines - Los Baños.

The town mayor was sentenced to seven terms of reclusion perpetua. The Supreme Court in 1999 upheld the Pasig court ruling.

Reclusion perpetua is imprisonment for 30 to 40 years.

Political prisoner?

In 2003, his eighth year in maximum security, Sanchez said he was hoping to get pardoned instead of applying for early release.

"I would rather have an absolute pardon. It will come. For us political prisoners, we have that option," Sanchez told the Philippine Star at that time.

In 2016, the Sandiganbayan forfeited in favor of the government P5.676-million worth of Sanchez's assets.

The Office of the Ombudsman completed the recovery of the alleged ill-gotten wealth last year.

RA 10592 amends provisions of the law on the reductions to the sentence of a convicted prisoner or an inmate on preventive imprisonment based on good conduct.

The law was initially made to be prospective in application, meaning it will only apply to cases that occurred after it was enacted in 2013.

Decongesting the courts

A June 25 decision by the Supreme Court changed the application to retroactive, effectively covering more inmates.

In the decision, the Court said that while the law did not define a crime or prescribe a penalty, "its provisions [had] the purpose and effect of diminishing the punishment attached to the crime."

"The further reduction of the length of the penalty of imprisonment is, in the ultimate analysis, beneficial to the detention and convicted prisoners alike; hence, calls for the application of Article 22 of the RPC," the Court ruled.

The Court said the ruling was envisioned to eventually lead to the decongestion of the Philippine jail system.

Penned by Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta, the ruling had concurrences by all sitting justices, except Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza, who took no part in the vote because he was on official leave at the time. —NB, GMA News