Teehankee freedom hit; group says pardon sends wrong signal
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 10/06/2008 10:54 PM
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The anti-crime group Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) decried the commutation of sentence of convicted murderer Claudio Teehankee Jr., who was released from the New Bilibid Prison last Friday.
VACC chairman Dante Jimenez said the pardon sent a wrong signal to criminals because it meant that those who committed heinous crimes may in the end, get out of jail free, courtesy of Malacañang.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has said that after Teehankee, Rolito Go, another high-profile convicted murderer, is also in line for a presidential pardon.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said Go, convicted for murdering De La Salle University student Eldon Maguan in a traffic altercation in 1991, is among a number of convicts applying for executive clemency.
Go's application for clemency, Gonzalez added, is facing strong opposition from the Maguan family.
Jimenez, meanwhile, said that even though granting clemency is a prerogative of President Arroyo, it would be better if the public was informed about impending pardon cases.
Earlier, Gonzalez said Teehankee, a son of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee Sr. and brother of former justice undersecretary Manuel Teehankee, was freed on Friday last week.
Gonzalez said the DOJ, Bureau of Corrections and Board of Pardon and Parole "carefully studied" the commutation of the sentence for two to three years.
Teehankee was found guilty in 1995 for murdering Maureen Hultman and her friend Roland John Chapman in Dasmariñas Village in Makati. A third victim, Jussi Leino, was wounded in the attack.
The convict was sentenced to life imprisonment and two counts of reclusion temporal (maximum of 17 years, 4 months and 1 day to 20 years). With a report from Ron Gagalac, ABS-CBN News
