Lawyer says DOJ might have miscalculated Teehankee sentence

MANILA, Philippines - A law professor from the University of the Philippines on Thursday said that pardoned killer Claudio Teehankee Jr might have walked out of prison because of simple miscalculation. The view was expressed by UP professor Theodore Te who pointed out that courts impose numerous sentences so that if one of them is commuted, there would still be other sentences which have to be served by the convict. "The reason why the revised penal code says you have to impose as many sentences as there are convictions is so that pag may commutation na isa there's still another sentence," Te said. Te made the remark in an interview with GMA News’ 24 Oras’ Maki Pulido. However, Te's view was contested by lawyer Jun Malonda, chief of Parole Office of the Board of Pardons and Parole (BPP) who said that a prisoner can only be burdened with 40 years of imprisonment no matter how many life sentences were imposed against him. Malonda said that Teehankee received a commutation of sentence which cut short his jail term from 40 years (reclusion perpetua) to 21 years. “The original sentence of Mr. Teehankee has adjusted pursuant to Article 17 of the Revised Penal Code is a definite prison term of 40 years which was commuted by the President last Sept. 30, 2008 to a definite prison term of 21 years and three months," he said. Based on computation of the Bureau of Correction’s (BuCor), Teehankee’s actual time served was summed up to “12 years, six months, and 26 days." His credit from preventive imprisonment, meanwhile, summed up to “four years, seven months, and 16 days." In addition to that, he was granted additional deduction of four years as part of his Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA). To sum it all up, Teehankee has served more than 21 years of jail term. Teehankee, the son of former Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee Sr., was found guilty in 1995 for killing Maureen Hultman and her friend Roland John Chapman, and gravely wounding their friend Jussi Leino in 1991. He was sentenced with one count of reclusion perpetua (or life imprisonment) for killing Hultman, and two counts of reclusion temporal for the cases of Leino and Chapman. President Arroyo, meanwhile, approved the granting of executive clemency to Teehankee by virtue of a letter dated October 2 to the Office of the Natonal Bilibid Prision (NBD)Director. Legal but not Moral “The power to grant Executive Clemency is absolute to the president nobody can question," Malonda also said. But "it's not morally right" said Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) -Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care executive secretary Rodolfo Diamante. “Legal yun, tama dun si (Justice) Secretary (Raul) Gonzales pero tama ba yun? Its not morally right," Diamante said during an interview over Radio Veritas. Selective treatment? When asked if Teehankee’s case illustrated preferential treatment, Diamante said: “Yes, yes." “Yes, yes, yan ang danger ng absolute power. Ito ay selective application of the law. Ganun lang ang sistema ng hustisya sa bansa. Makikita mo political ang motivation. Alam mo naman sa lipunan basta may connect ka ay maayos ang kalagayan mo. Ganyan si Tehankee, nagtatamasa ng VIP (treatment)." “Pero ang ordinaryong bilanggo ay nagsisiksikan sa isang selda. Patuloy naming ina-advocate ang pagbabago pero ayaw ng mga tao sa loob. Sad to say, nagbingi-bingihan ang ating mga politician sa tunay na kalagayan ng ating prison system. Nagiging sikat lang naman kung mayroong ganyan pero huhupa din yan." Aside from being the son of the former Chief Justice, Teehankee also has a brother, Manuel, who was an Arroyo appointee and is now the current Philippine representative to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. On Wednesday, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita was asked if the release of Teehankee was connected to the fact that he has a sister, Priscilla, who was a former classmate of the President in Assumption College. To this, Ermita said he was not sure if the report was true. For Diamante, there are other prisoners who also deserve the pardon but never get it. He cited the case of Philip Miranda - one of the accused in the Aquino-Galman double murder case - whom he said has served more than 23 years and has a good record. “Twenty-three years na si Philip Miranda, maganda ang record dahil presidente siya ng Inmate Pastoral Council sa NBP at asawa (niya) ay nagta-trabaho sa loob pero nandoon pa rin at nakakulong." With such developments Diamente called on to the legislative department to revisit the law which upholds the President’s constitutional right to grant executive clemency. “Kaya hinihiling namin sa mga mambabatas na its time to re-visit the law in granting executive clemency. Maging ang BPP guidelines kung talagang may batayan. Hindi dapat sa dahilang pulitikal na kung meron kang direktang koneksyon sa makapangyarihan ay makakalaya ka," Diamante said. - Aie Balagtas See, GMANews.TV