Panelo: My conscience is clear

Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Tue, 03 Sep 2019 10:52:24 +0000

PANELO

Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said his “conscience is clear” following his admission he met with the family of rape-slay convict Antonio Sanchez and referred the clemency plea to the parole board for evaluation.

The President maintained that he did not recommend or endorse any grant of clemency for Sanchez, saying he merely forwarded the family’s appeal to the concerned government agency.

“Unang-una, malinis ang konsensya ko. Pangalawa, 27 years ago pa hindi ko siya nakikita so ordinaryo sa akin lahat ‘yun. Kung sino ang lumapit sinasagot ko,” he said in an interview with reporters at the Palace.

“It was not a referral letter to act favorably. The letter speaks for itself. It was an ordinary referral to them to do something about the request. That’s for them to decide. We have nothing to do with it,” he added.

Earlier, Board of Pardons and Parole executive director Reynaldo Bayang told a Senate hearing that Panelo wrote to the board about the application for clemency of Sanchez. Panelo was a former defense counsel of the ex-Calauan, Laguna mayor convicted of rape and murder in 1993.

Panelo later clarified he merely forwarded the family’s request to the parole board and did not intervene. He confirmed though that he met with the family of Sanchez at his office in Malacañang after they asked for help for the grant of pardon via email.

The Palace official, however, brushed aside speculations that his referral letter was a form of intervention to secure the release of his former client.

“In the first p
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