You do the Math

The President’s pardoning Claudio Teehankee Jr. seems to have caused great offense. And yet first of all, it is an act that is irreversible. It is also an act that represents a net gain, politically, for the President regardless of its effects on public opinion.

If it is true, as the Justice Secretary claims, that the pardon was granted essentially upon the request of the convict’s brother, the President’s ambassador to the World Trade Organization, Manuel Teehankee, then the political context of the pardon becomes clear. Ambassador Teehankee has been a close and valued subordinate of the President, previously floated as a potential successor to the present Justice Secretary. The ambassador and his family also surely knew that they had a bigger chance of securing executive clemency now, than at any time previously or in the future: it involves a crime which accords absolutely no mitigating circumstances for the convict.

The Catholic hierarchy, too, is bound to the Church’s position of opposing the death penalty, and so cannot take the case too far -it would risk reopening the death penalty debate. The Church is too invested in opposing the Reproductive Health Bill, counts too much on the President being their ultimate bulwark in terms of exercising her veto power, not to mention doing her part to mobilize opposition to the bill in Congress.

The law-and-order types are also politically negligible now or in the near term. They failed to elect a law-and-order candidate for the presidency; they are not mobilized in Congress, on the local level, and will not be a swing vote in the Palace’s political projects: passing the 2009 budget and amending the Constitution.

The upper and middle classes will vent their spleen but nothing shows that they will divorce themselves from the President between now and 2010 (and who knows, even beyond). Those from these classes too stupid to have stayed out of jail in the first place can celebrate the release of Teehankee as a sign of potential presidential favors to come.

The poor, more often than not unjustly imprisoned, will continue to clamor for executive clemency and be supported in their appeals by the clergy.

So she pleases a subordinate she holds in high regard; she proves to her supporters up and down the line that she will bail them out; she knows sectors like the Church need her now more than ever, and those against her move have been against her anyway.

And public opinion? This, too, shall pass.

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Manuel L. Quezon III.

53 thoughts on “You do the Math

  1. From Lito Banayo:

    I was having coffee with a lawyer-friend the day after the shocking news came out. Calmly my lawyer-friend remarked, “Hindi kasi matatanggihan ni GMA si Dondi,” referring to Manuel Teehankee, Doña Gloria’s emissary to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, a post that carries the rank of ambassador).

    Asked to explain further, this lawyer-friend said, “Remember that he was justice undersecretary to Nani Perez prior to 2004. What “acts” did he have to clean up? What “missions” did he have to undertake?”

  2. @ Vic’s post (October 10th, 2008 at 9:38 pm)

    Vic, since when did the Palace’s spin people EVER talk with one, coordinated voice?

    I’ve always lamented about how… crazy their issue-management system there is. Sa dinami-dami ng pera/resources ng gubyerno, di ba sila maka-hire ng matinong Issue Manager?

    @ MLQ’s article

    Nice one, MLQ. Its a little sad reading, but it states out clearly how the whole situation is.

    The Philippines needs to find its Obama. Sadly, the political warfare since 2000 – yes, I trace it that far back – seems to have razed the political landscape quite crisply, if not to ashes.

    *sigh*

    Garci sucks.

  3. Everybody deserves forgiveness so please don’t be hypocrites. Upon conviction and serving of sentence, justice was upheld 17 years ago. Let God alone dispense His Divine Justice. And these PGMA critics won’t have anything good do say either so what else is new?

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