Appeal to Jesus, says Raul Gonzales to those who oppose Teehankee release

Executive secretary Eduardo Ermita says, its an executive decision to grant clemency to convicted murderer Claudio Teehankee Jr. Besides, says Ermita, and seconded by chuwariwah (In)Justice secretary Raul Gonzales, the president went through the case file and did everything by the book. Teehankee has served well over 20 years, says sRaul(o), and all those who hate his release may very well appeal to Jesus Christ. And that includes the Haltmans.

A few days from now, the Haltman's will be commemorating the death anniversary of their daughter Maureen. What will her parents tell her? That her gunman is now a free man, freed by the greed and haughtiness of a regime?

Many people say, Gloria released Claudio due to her classmate, Pricilla. Pricilla reportedly appealed to Gloria to release her brother immediately because he's reportedly "losing it" inside Bilibid. What she reportedly meant is his brother is allegedly "losing his marbles" and besides, says the Teehankees, he has suffered enough already and no one is protesting his inclusion to the list of those to be given paroles or executive clemency anyway when they published the ad in 2004?

Well, we all empathize with both the Teehankees and the Huffmans but this is beside the point. This is a matter of law. If it's lawful for Claudio to be released, so be it. If he has served his sentence, and if he's eligible for executive clemency, then, he has every right to get it. 

In this case, Claudio is not eligible for executive clemency due to two reasons: one, he is serving a double sentence for life and to be eligible you need to serve the majority of your sentence and two, he has not yet reached the mandatory age of 70 years old to qualify. Besides, Teehankee is still answerable to the crime of attempted homicide, which imposes a separate penalty of imprisonment.

Forget about the VACC, forget about public outrage. The fact is--Teehankee Jr. must not be released as yet, because he has not served the years he's supposed to serve. He was incarcerated for only about nine years, and the computation of Raul Gonzales is wrong.

Now, what do we do about Teehankee now, a freed (not free?)man?

Anybody can arrest him and turn him over to the authorities. We can overturn this executive decision. Let the People decide on this case and the People's Tribunal should decide the fate of Teehankee.