Palace defends Arroyo decision to release convicted Teehankee
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 10/07/2008 12:42 PM
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Malacañang on Tuesday defended President Arroyo’s decision to grant executive clemency to convicted murderer Claudio Teehankee Jr., son of former chief justice Claudio Teehankee Sr.
"It goes through a process. The prisoner's conduct is being reviewed. In Teehankee's case, this was subject to a very rigorous review. This (petition for pardon) was even twice reviewed," Press Secretary Jesus Dureza told radio dzMM.
Dureza said Teehankee, just like other convicted inmates, have the right to ask for a petition for executive clemency and is entitled to a "commutation of sentence."
The press secretary said that while Teehankee was in prison, the Board of Pardons and Parole deducted five days from his sentence each month because of "good conduct."
Teehankee was sentenced to one count of reclusion perpetua and one count of reclusion temporal, which has an equivalent of up to 60 years of imprisonment.
The murder convict, however, was released last October 2 after Mrs. Arroyo commuted his sentence. Teehankee served at least 14 years in jail.
DOJ: Three-year process
Secretary Raul Gonzalez of the Department of Justice (DOJ), meanwhile, explained that the granting of executive clemency to Teehankee was not done in haste.
Gonzalez said Teehankee's pardon petition has been pending before the Board of Pardons and Parole for three years. He said the petition "swung back and fourth" from the board to the DOJ for three years.
Dante Jimenez, chairman of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, said that his group will ask the Bureau of Corrections and the DOJ for the computation of the time allowance granted to Teehankee.
Jimenez said even if Teehankee was given five days deduction, he should still be serving a jail term of more than 50 years.
Teehankee was convicted for the cold-blooded murder of teenagers Roland John Chapman and Swedish-Filipino Maureen Hultman in 1991. A third victim, Jussi Leino, was wounded in the attack.
