Claudio Ong Teehankee, CCLH ( zh, t=鄭建祥, s=郑建祥, poj=Tī Kiàn-siông; April 18, 1918 – November 27, 1989) was the 16th Chief Justice of the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

of the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

from 1986 to 1988. He was also the most senior associate justice and chairman of the First Division of the

of the

Early life and education

Teehankee was born on April 18, 1918, in

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

as the seventh child of Dr. José Teehankee and Julia Ong y Sangroniz. His father, José Tee Han Kee (), immigrated to the Philippines in 1901 from

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

province in China. He was a close associate and friend of

Sun Yat-Sen Sun Yat-senUsually known as Sun Zhongshan () in Chinese; also known by Names of Sun Yat-sen, several other names. (; 12 November 186612 March 1925) was a Chinese physician, revolutionary, statesman, and political philosopher who founded the Republ ...

, and was active in the struggle to liberate China from the Qing dynasty. Dr. Tee Han Kee later became the founding director of Chinese General Hospital. Claudio learned to write in fluent Chinese, and contributed multiple articles later on for the Chinese-language newspaper The Fookien Times Yearbook from 1966 to 1968. He received his A.B. summa cum laude in 1938 and LL.B. with the only summa cum laude in the school as part of the second batch in 1940 at the Ateneo de Manila. He also garnered first place in the 1940 bar examination with an average of 94.35 percent.

Career

Teehankee was Marcos's lawyer in the libel case regarding the movie, Iginuhit ng Tadhana, then became Secretary of Justice under the Marcos administration in 1967 before being appointed as associate justice in 1968. 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 as 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 dissent together. After Muñoz-Palma's retirement, he was joined by Associate Justice Vicente Abad Santos in dissenting. 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 removal of Marcos that he was appointed Chief Justice by

Corazon Aquino María Corazón "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (; January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was a Filipino politician who served as the 11th president of the Philippines and the first woman president in the country, from Presidency of Corazon ...

in 1987.

Later years

After his retirement, he was appointed as the Philippine Ambassador to the United Nations, where he died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, New York on November 27, 1989, at the age of 71. He is interred at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

Personal life

Teehankee was married to Pilar Duldulao Javier with whom he had nine children. Like Teehankee, his eighth son Manuel Antonio topped the bar in 1983 and also became a diplomat. He was also the uncle of Political Science professor Julio C. Teehankee. His son Claudio Jr. would be imprisoned for homicide in the 1990s.

References

Sources

Supreme Court of the Philippines – Claudio Teehankee biodata

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Teehankee, Claudio 1918 births 1989 deaths 20th-century Filipino lawyers Associate justices of the Supreme Court of the Philippines Ateneo de Manila University alumni Burials at the Libingan ng mga Bayani Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Centro Escolar University alumni Chief justices of the Supreme Court of the Philippines Filipino judges Filipino people of Chinese descent Lawyers from Manila Secretaries of justice of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos administration cabinet members Filipino politicians of Chinese descent Individuals honored at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Judges and justices honored at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Permanent representatives of the Philippines to the United Nations