CLAUDIO S. TEEHANKEE (1918-1989) Eloquent Defender of Civil ...

CLAUDIO S. TEEHANKEE
(1918-1989)
Eloquent Defender of Civil Rights
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1986-1988, Claudio Teehankee was born in
Manila on April 18, 1918 to Jose Teehankee and Julia Ong Sangroniz.
He studied at the Ateneo de Manila, where he obtained in 1938 his Bachelor of Arts
degree, summa cum laude. He proceeded to take up law in the same school, graduating, also
summa cum laude, in 1940. In the bar examinations that year, he brought further honor to
Ateneo by gaining first place with all-time-high average of 94.35 percent.
He started practicing his profession in 1941. In 1946, he became a partner in the Tañada,
Pelaez and Teehankee law office. Around this time, he joined Senators Lorenzo Tañada and
Claro M. Recto in organizing the Citizen's Party.
On January 15, 1966, President Ferdinand E. Marcos appointed Teehankee as
undersecretary of justice. A year later, on August 5, 1967, he was designated justice secretary.
As justice secretary, Teehankee introduced institutional changes to improve the delivery
of justice. He conceptualized the formation of circuit criminal courts thereby paving the way for
the holding of court sessions in safe and accessible venues for those involved in the proceedings.
Because there were 16 judicial districts, 16 circuit courts were also formed. Since the circuit
courts conducted continuous sessions, verdicts were released 30 days after a case was
submitted. It was not surprising, therefore, that during his term as justice secretary, thousands
of cases filed in the Court of Agrarian Relations, as well as strikes handled by the Court of
Industrial Relations, were settled. Teehankee also reduced to six days the period for pre-trial
investigations and issued a directive stopping the wholesale granting of search warrants.
Being the Justice Secretary, Teehankee was duty bound to advise the President on
significant issues involving national patrimony and the Office of the President. These included
the issue on economic exchange with communist and socialist countries, on which he opined
that Philippine laws allowed it, and on the Retail Trade Nationalization Law, whose
implementation by the President he advised.
In November 1968, Teehankee was elevated to the Supreme Court as one of its associate
justices. He distinguished himself when he upheld the rights of the people even during the
height of the martial law period. Teehankee often dissented from the majority opinion of his
colleagues in the court, accusing Marcos and the military of human right abuses. He authored
the opinion questioning the jurisdiction of military commissions over civilians, such as the one
that tried former Senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr. In his role as "great dissenter," Teehankee was
called the "conscience of the Supreme Court." When he became a senior member of the Senior
Court, Teehankee was twice bypassed for the position of Chief Justice, violating the protocol that
the most senior of the justices be named to head it.
Teehankee weathered the bar scandal of 1982, which involved the son of another
Supreme Court justice, and was reappointed to the court. He also survived attempts to impeach
him and questions concerning his citizenship during the same year.

At the height of the EDSA Revolution in February 1986, Teehankee played a crucial role
in swearing in Corazon C. Aquino as the country's 11 th President while Marcos was holding his
own inaugural ceremony at Malacañang.
Teehankee served as Chief Justice until his retirement on April 18, 1988. He died of
cancer in New York on November 27, 1989 at the age of 72.
References:
Fernan, Marcelo B. “A Tribute to Dingdong Teehankee” Manila Bulletin (December 17,
1989)
Retizos, Isidro L. & Soriano, D.H. Philippines Who’s Who. Quezon City: Capitol Publishing
House, Inc., 1981.
Sevilla, Victor J. Justices of the Supreme Court of the Philippines Volume III Quezon City: the
Author & New Day Publishers, 1985
Photo in: Justices of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, p. 42