MANILA, Philippines — (Updated 12:22 p.m.) Former Calauan, Laguna mayor and rape-slay convict Antonio Sanchez died Saturday morning in his prison cell at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, the Bureau of Corrections confirmed.
Corrections spokesperson Gabriel Chaclag said Sanchez was found unresponsive in his cell at 7 a.m. and was brought to the NBP Hospital by his cellmates where he was declared dead on arrival.
Chaclag said his body is up for autopsy, as part of the procedure on sudden inmate deaths, but remarked that there is no sign of foul play.
“He was last seen at 10 p.m. still alive preparing to sleep,” Chaclag said. “He had existing conditions such as chronic kidney disease, hypertension, recurring gastroenteritis, prostate problems and asthma.”
In September 2020, Sanchez was brought to the Ospital ng Muntinlupa for vomiting and diarrhea and was diagnosed with electrolyte imbalance secondary to acute gastroenteritis, chronic kidney disease, hypertension and benign prostatic hypertrophy.
‘Plot seemingly hatched in hell’
In 1995, Sanchez was convicted for the rape-slay of Eileen Sarmenta and the murder of Allan Gomez, both students of the University of the Philippines – Los Baños.
In her ruling, which was affirmed by the Supreme Court in 1999, Judge Harriet Demetriou described the crime as a “plot seemingly hatched in hell.”
Sanchez’s thugs abducted Sarmenta and Gomez from the UP Los Baños campus on June 23, 1993 and took them to Erais Farm, which is owned by the mayor. There, Sarmenta and Gomez were bound and gagged.
Sanchez’s henchmen presented Sarmenta as a “gift” to the mayor, which he later raped. Meanwhile, Gomez was beat up by his men.
When he was done with her, Sanchez tossed Sarmenta to his men who proceeded to gang rape her. She and Gomez were later brutally killed.
Good Conduct and Time Allowance
Sanchez resurfaced in the headlines in 2019 after it was reported that he may walk free along with 11,000 prisoners who may benefit from a law increasing good conduct time allowance and a Supreme Court decision to apply it retroactively.
But Sanchez was not exactly a model inmate, as he faced a complaint for illegal drug possession while in prison, according to a 2006 report by The STAR.
Years after that, authorities found P1.5 million in shabu hidden in a statue of the Virgin Mary that he kept in his cell. Another raid of the maximum security compound led to the seizure of a flat-screen television, air conditioner and a refrigerator from Sanchez's cell.
His case prompted a review of the good conduct and time allowance law, which ultimately led to the Department of Justice crafting new rules to exclude those convicted of heinous crimes from availing of the benefit which effectively shortens the time spent in prison.
READ: Whatever happened to: The GCTA controversy
But beyond Sanchez, the controversy surrounding the good conduct time allowance law also affected thousands of freed heinous crime convicts, who President Rodrigo Duterte ordered on Sept. 4, 2019 to surrender in 15 days or they will be treated as fugitives.
By December — or three months since Duterte’s deadline lapsed — the number of returnees ballooned to 2,352 or more than 400 than the names on BuCor’s list. DOJ said of these, 827 had been released on December 25. — Xave Gregorio with reports from Kristine Joy Patag