1998 Press Releases can be found at the Archive Section.
Miriam
Seeks To Make Media Bribery A Crime (18 January 1999)
MIRIAM SEEKS TO MAKE MEDIA BRIBERY
A CRIME
18 January 1999
Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago urged President Estrada to include as a priority administration measure a package of bills to reform campaign finance, including her own bill to make media bribery a crime.
In a privilege speech yesterday (January 18), Santiago quoted a recently released book, News for Sale, claiming that in the last presidential campaign, each major political party spent some P300 million to P600 million for propaganda alone, including huge sums spent to bribe the media.
Quoting from the book, Santiago said standard monthly payoffs run from P5,000-P10,000 for reporters; P10,000-P15,000 for editors and columnists; and P100,000 for a black propaganda campaign against a political opponent.
Santiago complained that her bill entitled "Code of Professional Standards for Political Public Relations," has been pending for the last three years in the committee on media and public relationschaired by Sen. Ramon Revilla.
The Santiago bill penalizes: the giving of gifts of more than nominal value to media practitioners, and any form of payment or compensation to a media member, in order to obtain preferential or guaranteed news or editorial coverage;
The giving of any retainer or fee to a media employee, unless the circumstances are fully disclosed to, and accepted by, the media employer;
Providing trips for media representatives that are unrelated to legitimate news interests; Using an advertising commitment to obtain preferential or guaranteed coverage.
The senator proposed that the same criminal penalties for media bribery should be required as those imposed in RA No.6713, entitled "Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees."
The existing law requires a penalty of imprisonment not exceeding five years, or a fine not exceeding P5,000 or both.
"The Constitution should not be amended unless and until Congress reforms campaign finance and criminalizes media bribery," she said.
Santiago noted that the last presidential elections "were the most expensive in Philippine political history," because the wealthiest presidential candidates allegedly spent some P1.5 billion to P3 billion each for the campaign.
"To reform the culture of corruption, what is needed is not the parliamentary system, but a system to make campaign finance transparent and legitimate" she said.
Santiago also urged newly-appointed Chair Harriet Demetriou of the Commission on Elections to submit to the Senate bills aiming to reform campaign finance.
"If this trend of electoral corruption continues, the most pragmatic alternative seems to be to auction off the presidency to the candidate who can put in a bid of P3 billion or higher, with no questions asked," she said.
The book was written by journalist Chay Florentino Hofileña and published last year by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, under Executive Director Melinda Quintos de Jesus, and by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, under Executive Director Sheila Coronel.
MIRIAM SEEKS PROBE OF POLITICAL SURVEY FIRMS
19 January 1999
Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago filed a resolution directing the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee to investigate, as a matter of public interest, the alleged use of public funds to subscribe to political survey firms, the operation of such firms, and the alleged corruption of political survey results released to the public.
This developed after Sen. Ramon Revilla, chair of the committee on public information and mass media, assured Santiago that the committee will report out this month the Santiago bill imposing a criminal penalty on media bribery.
"There has been growing public distrust of political surveys, because of the belief that popularity surveys are for sale, and that the problem of media bribery includes survey bribery," the senator said.
Santiago said that in the same way that media bribery allegedly results in positive propaganda for the briber or black propaganda for his victim, survey bribery allegedly results in positive ratings for the briber or negative ratings for his victim, which have no relation to reality.
Santiago said it might be unethical for any public official to use public funds to subscribe to a political survey conducted by a commercial firm, since the firm might give the public official a higher popularity rating because of his subscription.
The senator argued that it is unethical for a public official to be guided in his policy decisions by popularity surveys alone.
"A public official should be guided only by his moral convictions, even if it happens to be unpopular," she said.
Santiago also said that firms conducting political surveys should be deemed quasi-public institutions, and should be held accountable for the survey results they release, or authorize for release, to the public.
In her resolution, Santiago quoted from the Philippine Press Institute’s Code of Professional and Ethical Conduct, which provides: "Beware of surveys. Statistical data derived from polling and surveying is especially susceptible to misunderstanding, misinterpretation and misuse. Newspapers should clearly distinguish between scientific polls and non-scientific surveys .... In using scientific polls, the sample size and the margin of error should be disclosed."
In a related resolution, Santiago requested Senate President Marcelo Fernan to report on whether the Senate has any subsisting contract or subscription with any commercial survey firm.
Santiago said she wants to stop the practice of public offices such as the Senate, the House of Representatives, and cabinet departments, of using official funds to pay for popularity surveys conducted by commercial firms.
"Popularity surveys are allegedly for sale, and thus have fallen into disrepute and notoriety," Santiago said.
She said that popularity ratings of senators are neither necessary nor beneficial to legislative work, because senators should function according to their convictions, and not according to whatthey think will make them popular.
"When a survey is based on an extremely negligible sample size, it tends to equate service with a mere popularity contest, reducing legislators to the level of paid entertainers who are consumed not with actual performance, but with public perception," she said.
ERAP PERSUADES MIRIAM TO SUPPORT CHA-CHA
22 January 1999
"I can live with charter change, provided that there will be no partisan agenda for political gain," Santiago said in a telephone interview.
Last year, Santiago filed and won in the Supreme Court the case of Santiago versus Comelec, which effectively prevented the Ramos administration from amending the charter.
A Malacañang source said Pres. Estrada interrupted the meeting to call Sen. Marcelo Fernan, the Senate president, to inform the latter of the progress in the work of the presidential preparatory commission for constitutional amendment.
Estrada and Santiago, who were foes in last year’s presidential elections, both opposed charter change in the past, on the ground that it would allow then. Pres. Ramos to serve a second term.
"We need the expertise of Sen. Santiago in amending the constitution," the Palace source quoted the President as telling Fernan.
Santiago taught constitutional law for some ten years at the University of the Philippines, and is the author of the prescribed casebook, Constitutional Law.
During the meeting, Pres. Estrada reportedly cracked a joke at the expense of executive secretary Ronaldo Zamora, after noting that Santiago topped her law class at UP Diliman, while Zamora topped his law class at UP Padre Faura.
"I understand that in the UP college of law, the academic standard was lower in Padre Faura campus than in Diliman campus," Pres. Estrada reportedly said, evoking laughter from Zamora and Santiago, who belonged to the same class, but studied in different campuses.
Palace sources said Pres. Estrada was noticeably relaxed and in good humor during his talk with Santiago, which also included a planned alliance between their political parties.
"The boss respects her savvy and honesty.She likes him because he is as blunt and tough-minded as she is," the source said.
Santiago, who was accompanied by her husband Narciso Santiago, reportedly told the President of her intention to leave the country, after her term expires in 2001.
"The boss looked serious and said no because the country needs her," the source said
During her telephone interview, Santiago confirmed that she would accept a nomination to the International Court of Justice, where there will be a vacancy in 2000.
"I told the President that I would like to practice international law, after spending so many years studying it in Europe. The President doesn’t seem to think it’s a good idea," Santiago said.
Santiago recently studied at Oxford and said she will study in Cambridge this summer.
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MIRIAM DECLINES COMMITTEE CHAIRMANSHIPS
25 January 1999
Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago said she has declined the chairmanship of the Senate labor committee, as well as of the science and technology committee.
Santiago also said she would not seek any committee chairmanship in the ongoing Senate reorganization, even if she is entering into an alliance with the Lammp majority party.
"Even Cleopatra knew when to quit. This is a battle no longer worth fighting, because there is no principle involved, just personalities," she said.
She added that she is no longer inclined to file a petition for relief from judgment with the Supreme Court, which earlier ruled that Lakas is the minority party in the Senate.
She said that such a petition is allowed on the ground of fraud, which allegedly exists because members of the opposition Lakas party earlier gave up committee chairmanships, but will soon be occupying the same chairmanships that they gave up.
Santiago said that for the Lakas members to occupy the same chairmanships they earlier purported to relinquish is "casuistic."
Lakas party members gave up their chairmanships last year, in an effort to convince the Supreme Court that Lakas is the minority party in the Senate.
However, after the court ruled in favor of Lakas, its members then made a U-turn and demanded to get back the same chairmanships.
Santiago said the Lakas action "misled the Supreme Court," but she is "no longer interested in setting the record straight."
"I get it: somebody up there in the Lammp doesn’t like me. I am not referring to Pres. Estrada," she said.
She said that since she is a lawyer specializing in constitutional and international law, she expressed preference for "legal" committees such as Blue Ribbon, constitutional amendments, and justice and human rights, but they were denied her.
She said she is "disillusioned" with the Senate leadership, and not with the chairpersons..
"Sen. Pimentel is doing well in the Blue Ribbon committee. I have nothing but praise for his work there," she said.
Santiago, a former United Nations legal officer at Geneva, said she is prepared to resign from the Senate, if she is elected to an international institution, such as the International Court of Justice.
However, she added that she is not sure whether the administration will support her candidacy, because it is financially expensive to campaign for an international post.
She said that President Estrada is sympathetic, but the Philippine government may not have the funds to launch a serious campaign in the United Nations.
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