Graft court told: Don’t junk wealth case vs Calauan’s Sanchez

MANILA, Philippines – The Office of the Ombudsman has opposed a motion filed with the Sandiganbayan by lawyers of former Calauan, Laguna, Mayor Antonio Sanchez seeking to dismiss a 20-year-old ill-gotten wealth case against him and his wife Editha.

Sanchez, in his Omnibus Motion to Dismiss and Defer Proceedings, claimed the graft court no longer has jurisdiction over him after he was convicted by final judgment in the 1993 rape-murder of Eileen Sarmenta and the murder of her boyfriend Alan Gomez, both students of the University of the Philippines-Los Baños.

He is serving 7 life sentences for the crimes.

The defense argued that the verdict against Sanchez carried with it an accessory penalty of civil interdiction, which includes deprivation of one’s right to own property. This supposedly means the court no longer has jurisdiction over the forfeiture case.       

Assistant Special Prosecutor III Fay Isaguirre Singson, however, asked the Sandiganbayan 5th Division to dismiss the motion as the ground cited was based on a wrong interpretation of the law.

She pointed out that the subject of the civil case pending at the Sandiganbayan is the properties of the defendant – hence it is not an action against his person.

“Thus, for the defendants to thread the legal needle that the Court has lost jurisdiction over their person is untenable,” Singson said.

‘Don’t blame gov’t’

While admitting that the forfeiture case has been in court for 20 years, the prosecutor pointed out that the delay cannot be blamed on the government since the defendants themselves were the ones who sought several postponements of proceedings.

The case, a petition for forfeiture of unlawfully acquired property, was filed in August 1993 by then Ombudsman Conrado Vasquez and former Solicitor General Raul Goco.

Based on the complaint, Sanchez served as vice mayor of Calauan from 1972-1980, mayor from 1980 to 1986, and re-elected mayor from 1988 to 1993 during which he earned a lawful income of only P1.88 million.

But graft investigators traced 21 residential and farm lots, a P5-million mansion, luxury cars, and bank accounts in Sanchez’s name all totaling P15.7 million as of 1993.

In a pleading submitted in September 2012, the Sanchez couple’s former lawyer Conrado Manicad, claimed the defendants had been engaged in talks with government for a possible compromise agreement. – Rappler.com