MANILA, Philippines - All Maureen Hultman wanted on that early morning of July 13, 1991 was to get home unnoticed. It was much like the manner in which her killer, Claudio Teehankee Jr., would walk out of prison 17 years later—by virtue of an executive clemency kept from the public eye.

Hultman did not want her parents to know she was coming in late. The 16-year-old had been partying and bar-hopping way past midnight, so when her friends Roland John Chapman, 21, and Jussi Leino, 24, drove her home to Dasmariñas Village, Hultman asked them to drop her off a few blocks from the house so the car wouldn’t be heard. Chapman waited in the car while Leino offered to walk Hultman to the gate.

Before the two could reach the house, however, 55-year old Teehankee, a son of the late Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee Sr., came up from behind them in his car, alighted and asked for identification. Curious, Chapman came over and asked what was going on. Irked, Teehankee pushed Chapman, pulled out his gun and fired at him.

Teehankee then fired at Leino and the by then hysterical Hultman before he returned to his car and drove away. Wounded, Leino struggled to his knees and shouted for help. At least three people witnessed the dreadful encounter.

Chapman died immediately from the gunshot wound in his chest. Hultman suffered from injuries to the skull and brain and succumbed after 97 days in the hospital on October 17, 1991. Leino recovered from the wound in his jaw and was the key witness in the case. Three other witnesses supported Leino—two private security guards and a driver—identifying the box-type white Lancer with plate number PDW 566 used by Teehankee.

Three days after, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) found the car at the Teehankee residence. Teehankee was arrested and detained at the Makati City Jail on July 24, 1991.

Teehankee denied he was anywhere near the area when the crime took place. But the court found strong evidence in the witnesses’ accounts, including Leino’s own testimony. On Dec. 22, 1992, the court convicted Teehankee of murder for the death of Hultman, homicide for the death of Chapman, and frustrated murder for the shooting and wounding of Leino. Sentenced to life, Teehankee also received two other jail sentences and ordered to pay a total of P18 million in damages and attorney’s fees and litigation.

After his conviction, Teehankee, who was transferred to the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa, hired a new counsel and moved for a new trial. The Supreme Court, however, only upheld his conviction on Oct. 6, 1995.

Over 17 years after his conviction, Teehankee was granted executive clemency by President Arroyo in late September 2008. Away from the public eye, he was released on October 3, leaving the Bilibid complex five days later.

News of his release drew criticism and outrage especially from the Hultman family, who had relocated to Stockholm two years after the crime.

“We are very surprised, shocked and very angry. (The grant of clemency) came from out of the blue, and was completely unexpected,” said Anders Hultman, stepfather of Maureen. “I am embarrassed to be a Filipino.” Vivian Hultman, Maureen’s mother, added: “[What happened] is another example of miscarriage of justice in the Philippines.”

Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio, who led the team that put Teehankee behind bars, said that in failing to inform the victims’ families, the executive branch violated the rules set by the Board of Pardons and Parole (BPP). Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita insisted, however, that the Hultmans had been informed of the President’s grant of clemency before it was reported in the media.

Teehankee, it turns out, filed a petition for clemency on Dec. 22, 2003, about 12 years after he was jailed. On Jan. 28, 2004, the BPP issued a notice to the “offended party, convicting judge, and prosecutor” informing them of the application. The board also published in the Philippine Star nine days later a notice about 16 prisoners being considered for parole or executive clemency, with Teehankee’s name in the list. The Hultman family could not have missed the notice, Ermita said.

In all, Teehankee had served a total of 17 years, two months, and nine days before he was released, explained Ermita. Combined with good conduct time allowance, his term reached 21 years, three months and five days. The required minimum prison term for those applying for the privilege of executive clemency is 12 years.

Ermita further revealed that Teehankee’s camp met with the Hultmans and their lawyer in 1999 to discuss a possible pardon, and that “the Hultmans did not object when asked about the possibility of giving Mr. Teehankee pardon, and the Hultmans thought there was remorse on [his] part.” The two parties, he added, had also agreed on the terms of Teehankee’s payment of liabilities amounting to P6.864 million. This included the private residence of Teehankee in Pasig.

A document signed on November 12, 1999 by Vivian and Anders Hultman reads: “The Hultmans … will not object to nor interpose any opposition to the application for such parole or commutation or shortening for the sentence of … Teehankee.”

But Vivian Hultman said, “We signed the papers … for the settlement of civil damages, not because we agreed that he will be pardoned.”

Critics have also assailed the seeming bias in the justice system for the rich and influential, citing that aside from being a son of a former chief justice, Teehankee is the elder brother of Ambassador Manuel Teehankee, the Philippine representative to the World Trade Organization in Geneva and a former undersecretary of justice.

“I thought we were moving on but when we got the news, all the wounds opened up, the knots in the stomach that I felt when I used to see [Teehankee] face to face in court, came back,” Vivian Hultman, said. “It’s like everything just happened yesterday.” Lawrence de Guzman, Inquirer Research