2019, April 18. Claudio Teehankee, Birth Centenary
Litho Offset, Amstar Printing Company, Inc., Perf 14
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12p Claudio Teehankee - Singles
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First Day Covers: Manila
CHIEF JUSTICE CLAUDIO TEEHANKEE - BIRTH
CENTENARY
Claudio Teehankee was born on April 18, 1918 in Manila, Philippines.
His father, José Tee Han Kee, immigrated to the Philippines
in 1901 from Fujian province in China. He was a close associate and
friend of Sun Yat-Sen, and was active in the struggle to liberate
China from the Qing dynasty.
Teehankee was married to Pilar D. Javier with whom he had nine
children. He received his A.B. Summa Cum Laude in 1938
and LL.B. Summa Cum Laude in 1940 from Ateneo de Manila. He also
garnered First Place in the 1940 bar examinations with an average of
94.35 percent.
He became Secretary of Justice under
President Ferdinand E. Marcos administration in 1967 before being
appointed as Associate Justice in 1968.
In 1986, he was appointed to the position of Chief Justice by
President Corazon Aquino.
After his retirement, he was appointed as Philippine Ambassador to
the United Nations, where he died of cancer in Manhattan, New
York on November 27, 1989. He is interred at the Libingan ng mga
Bayani (Heroes Cemetery).
He was known as the court's "activist" justice because of his
dissenting opinions in many vital cases affecting the Marcos
administration. He was the lone dissenter in many cases, such the
High Tribunal's decision upholding the constitutionality of
the Judiciary Reorganization Act of 1980. He also dissented in
policies which would seem to curtail the basic liberties of people.
For a time, Teehankee and Justice Cecilia Muñoz-Palma would make
dissents together. After Muñoz-Palma's retirement, he was joined by
Associate Justice Vicente Abad Santos in making dissents.
It was this activism that made Marcos 'by-pass' him twice for the
position of Chief Justice (the most senior associate justice is most
likely to succeed after the retirement of the Chief Justice) in
1985. It was after the ousting of Marcos that he did get appointed
as Chief Justice by the Aquino administration in 1986.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudio_Teehankee