Faeldon signed Sanchez's release order, document shows

Convicted murderer and rapist Antonio Sanchez has supposedly gotten the go-signal of the government to walk free, documents obtained by GMA News showed.

According to a report by Jun Veneracion on GMA News TV's State of the Nation with Jessica Soho, the document was signed by Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Nicanor Faeldon.

Faeldon earlier denied signing the release order.  He did not issue a statement in reaction to the latest report.

GMA News Online also contacted Faeldon on Saturday morning but has yet to receive a reply.

According to the document, the release order was for an inmate named Antonio Leyva Sanchez, "who was found to have served 40 years upon retroactive application of RA No. 10592 and was certified to have no other legal cause to be further detained, shall be released from confinement."

The document was dated August 20, 2019.

Earlier, the family of Sanchez said they have been informed about the former mayor's impending release and was supposed to fetch him at the New Bilibid Prisons.

However, outrage over his looming freedom because of the law's good conduct time allowance (GCTA) provision has prompted the government to call for a review of the implementation of the law.

It was earlier reported that Sanchez, who was sentenced to lengthy jail terms in the 1993 rape and murder of Eileen Sarmenta and the murder of her friend, Allan Gomez, is one of the thousands of inmates eligible for time reductions to their sentence due to GCTA.

BuCor on Thursday said it has already released close to 2,000 inmates convicted of heinous crimes on the basis of good conduct-based reductions to their prison terms.

Data released by the bureau shows that of the 22,049 persons deprived of liberty (PDL) released from 2014 to 2019 due to good conduct time allowances (GCTA), 1,914 had been convicted of heinous crimes such as murder and rape.

The Senate will conduct an inquiry into the implementation of the GCTA next week.—With a report from Margaret Claire Layug/LDF/KG, GMA News