“The most practical kind of politics is the politics of decency,” according to US President Theodore Roosevelt

Whatever one may say about Henry “Pryde” Teves when he voluntarily relinquished the post of governor of Negros Oriental after failing to get an order from the Supreme Court to temporarily stop the Commission on Elections from unseating him following the disqualifying of a nuisance candidate and the crediting his votes to Teves’ opponent, one thing stands out.

There remains rare though it may be decency among a few of our politicians.

It was but still ethically proper, legal, and politically correct for Teves to hold on to the post while awaiting the result of a legal remedy he has sought from the High Tribunal no less.

After all, the results of the election showed him the winner, the Comelec had earlier proclaimed him, and he had taken his oath.

He was voted into office by his constituents and he surely cannot and should not abandon them without a legal fight.

In truth, he wasn’t fighting for himself; he was fighting for those ho voted for him, who wanted him to be their governor, and who had placed their trust in him.

That Comelec delayed in declaring a “namesake” of his opponent a nuisance candidate coming months after the election was over and Teves had been proclaimed and assumed office is not his fault; he was not even a party to the nuisance case.

That is precisely one of the flaws of our electoral system to which nearly every politician, the good kind or the bad, fall prey to.

Still and all, Teves opted to step down as soon as he failed to get a temporary restraining order from the SC.

That’s not only respect for the rule of law and the country’s highest arbiter of justice. It was the decent thing to do, and it is what any decent politician ought to do.

Which cannot be said of politicians who run for and hold public office even though they are “doing time” behind bars for crimes they committed on the flimsy legal argument that the conviction is not yet final. Legal, maybe. But is it decent?

Or of politicians who invoke some flimsy legal arguments to violate the constitutional limit on term of office and seek another term beyond what the Constitution permits. You may be able to make your way by a stretch of legal interpretation at best, but would that pass the test of decency?

But even with all these, Teves’ political opponents, critics and bashers would stop at nothing to ascribe other “sins” to him including those of some members of his family.

Blood may run across all members of one family, but certainly not the mistakes that one member commits. Mistakes are not genetic there is no DNA strain that connects one man’s mistake to another’s sins. Mistakes are a matter of choice.

Neither can one be responsible for another’s sins, related by blood they may be, unless you had a part in it.

Regardless, it is also a decent thing to do for one’s family to stand by a member who has erred or committed a wrong. Family does not throw a member under the bus for committing a wrong.

Family does not condemn a member for doing wrong. But they make sure that justice is served, and the erring member gets the punishment he deserves and learns his lesson.

But what really is decency?

In Bonfire of the Vanities, actor Morgan Freeman (playing the role of a judge) had this to say: “Decency is what your grandmother taught you.”

Teves’ grandmother must have taught him well.