Spanish citizen Francisco Manuel Sanchez de Oria pleaded "not guilty" on Friday, Oct. 29, on charges of sexually abusing a Filipino minor and possession of pornographic materials when arraigned by the Taguig City regional trial court (RTC).
Department of Justice (DOJ) Undersecretary Emmeline Aglipay-Villar said the next hearing on the cases of the accused, also known as Franco Sanchez, has been set on Dec. 7 for the presentation of the prosecution’s first witness.
Villar said Sanchez’s motion to dismiss the charges was denied by the RTC.
Sanchez was charged with 10 counts of violations of Republic Act No. 7610, the Special Protection of Children Against Child Abuse, Exploitation, and Discrimination Act, and one count of violation of RA 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Act.
Last Aug. 31, the RTC issued an arrest order against Sanchez. He did not post bail since he is currently detained at the Bureau of Immigration (BI) which is conducting deportation proceedings against him.
The criminal charge sheet against Sanchez stated that he “willfully, unlawfully and feloniously have sexual intercourse” in Taguig City with the victim who was “a minor, fifteen (15) years old at the time of the commission of the offense, or a child exploited in prostitution or subject to other sexual abuse, to the damage and prejudice of said victim.”
The complaints against him were filed by the family of the 16-year-old girl, a student of an exclusive school in Metro Manila.
The charges against Sanchez had also been filed by the same complainant against former United States foreign service officer Dean Edward Cheves before the Pasay City RTC which had issued an arrest order against him (Cheves).
But Cheves is in the US where he was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia last Aug. 3 for engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place and possession pornography.
He was a director of the US Embassy in Manila from September 2020 until February 2021.
The DOJ has been studying the possibility of extraditing Cheves so he could face trial before the Pasay City RTC.