SC distances self from Antonio Sanchez release issue

The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday distanced itself from the reported possible early release of convicted rapist-murderer Antonio Sanchez on the basis of a reduced sentence due to "good conduct" in prison.

Prison authorities are recomputing time allowances that may be granted to thousands of inmates, including Sanchez, for good behavior in accordance with a 2013 law and an SC ruling that said the law should be applied retroactively.

"The Supreme Court did not order the release of Mayor Sanchez in its recent decision..." Court spokesman Brian Keith Hosaka said, referring to a June 25 en banc ruling.

"In those cases, the primary issue was the legality of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of RA 10592 which provided for the prospective application of the said law," he added.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra earlier said that it was likely Sanchez, who was convicted for the 1993 Sarmenta-Gomez rape-slay case, will be released on the basis of deductions to his lengthy sentence because of good conduct time allowances (GCTA) provided for by Republic Act No. 10592.

Days later, Corrections chief Nicanor Faeldon, the man empowered by the law to grant GCTAs, said Sanchez may, after all, not walk free soon because of "not good behaviors" — for one, the former Calauan, Laguna mayor had been charged with drug possession while in prison.

Guevarra said the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) told him they will evaluate Sanchez's case next month. The bureau has already released some 200 inmates based on recomputed GCTAs, according to BuCor spokesman Eusebio del Rosario, Jr.

READ: What the law says about good conduct time allowances

RA 10592 was initially said to be applied prospectively, meaning its provisions will only cover cases from the time it was enacted in 2013. Several inmates in the New Bilibid Prison challenged this before the SC.

In a ruling penned by Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta, the en banc declared the law should be applied retroactively. Hosaka said the SC applied the doctrine in criminal law that penal laws should be applied retroactively when they are "favorable and advantageous" to the accused.

"Thus, the Supreme Court struck down the IRR and ruled that RA 10592 be applied retroactively, because it had the effect of lowering or reducing the sentences of qualified prisoners, hence, advantageous to them," the spokesman said.

Hosaka also clarified that the policy to increase time allowances to qualified prisoners stemmed from RA 10592 itself and not from the tribunal, which he said merely interpreted the law.

"Finally, the implementation of RA 10592 is not within the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court," he said. "Like all laws, it is to be implemented and executed by the executive branch of government. Again, the judiciary merely interpreted the law and ruled that it can be applied retroactively." —KBK, GMA News