Miriam Defensor Santiago | News

Yesterday (14 May 2012), the Ombudsman’s power-point presentation indicated that defendant has 82 dollar accounts in the following bank branches (with the accompanying number of accounts per bank):

•             BPI Acropolis Branch – 8
•             BPI Tandang Sora - 18
•             BPI Del Monte, Quezon City - 34
•             BPI Investment Corp. -1
•             PSB Cainta – 8
•             PSB Katipunan - 6
•             Allied Bank – 4
•             Deutsche Bank – 2
•             City Bank - 1

Because of hi-tech banking practices today, any information about a bank account will depend upon the system adopted by a particular bank.  For example, the bank could follow the customer transaction system or the bank transaction system. Hence, it could be possible that a single sum of money could be represented as a double entry.  One entry would be made in the credit column and another entry would be made in the debit column, although both entries could deal with one and the same amount of money.

A client could deposit and withdraw the same amount within a single day or within a few days of each other, if he engages in dollar trading.  A client who maintains a foreign currency deposit is not required to acquire a license for this purpose.  However, to engage in dollar trading, two or three accounts are sufficient.  It would be unnecessary to maintain all of 82 accounts.

The standard practice in the banking community is to raise the bells and whistles when one client seeks to keep more than two or three accounts.  To allege that the defendant had, for example, 34 accounts in BPI Del Monte taxes the credulity of bankers.

Therefore, I humbly propose, if there is no objection from our colleagues, that the Senate President should subpoena the manager of all nine bank branches that I have just enumerated.  The most knowledgeable official about a person’s bank account is the branch manager.  The branch manager is required by law and by standard banking policy to seek and record details about the client.#

Point No. 1:  May this Court order the parties to end the trial on or before June 7, the scheduled end of the Congress session?

Under the Rules of Court, Rule 133, Sec. 6, the court has power to stop further evidence on a particular point, “when the evidence is already so full that some witnesses to the same point cannot be reasonably expected to be additionally persuasive.  But this power should be exercised with caution.”

Further, under Rule 119 Sec. 11 para. (c):  “The prosecution and the defense may, in that order, present rebuttal and sur-rebuttal evidence unless the court, in furtherance of justice, permits them to present additional evidence bearing upon the main issue.”  In People v. Tan, 315 SCRA 375 (1999), the Supreme Court ruled: “It is within the sound discretion of a trial judge to allow a party that has rested its case to introduce rebuttal evidence.”

Under the Rules of Court, Rule 135, Section 1: “Justice shall be impartially administered without unnecessary delay.”  Under Sec. 5, entitled Inherent Powers of Courts, “every court shall have power: (d) To control, in furtherance of justice, the conduct of its ministerial officers, and of all other persons in any manner connected with a case before it, in every manner appertaining thereto.”

In the Pres. Clinton impeachment case, the House of Representatives impeached him for perjury and obstruction of justice on 19 December 1998.  Senate trial began on 7 January 1999.  He was acquitted on 12 February 1999 – or a little over a month later.

Therefore, I humbly submit that this impeachment court, after nearly five months of trial, possesses authority to order the conclusion of trial on or before June 7, so as to allow judgment to be promulgated before Congress ends this session. 

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Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago was the guest in the most recent episode of Powerhouse, a lifestyle-magazine show hosted by Mel Tiangco. Miriam opened up her house to her millions of fans in this episode, and shared stories about her family and her views about life in general. The episode aired last  24 April 2012 at GMA News TV 11.

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Today, 12 March 2012, I delivered this prayer written by Julian of Norwich at the opening of the impeachment hearing against Chief Justice Corona:

On one occasion the good Lord said, “Everything is going to be all right.”  On another, “You will see for yourself that every sort of thing will be all right.”  In these two sayings the soul discerns various meanings.

          One is that he wants us to know that not only does he care for great and noble things, but equally for little and small, lowly and simple things as well.  This is his meaning: “Everything will be all right.”  We are to know that the least thing will not be forgotten.

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Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, responding to a front-page Inquirer article yesterday where a priest claimed that she should be consigned to the fires of hell, said: “Under Vatican 2, there is no hell; but even if there is, there is nobody there.”

Santiago said that in theology, hell is not a geographical place, but is a metaphor for distance from God.

“The priest is saying that he is close to God, and I’m not.  I say to the priest, judge not, that you shall not be judged,” she said.

The senator said she was told that the priest had approached certain journalists to make sure that his homily would be reported in the print media.

“It is like St. Paul writing letters to the Corinthians, and begging them to publicize his letters.  This priest sounds very much like a publicity hound.  And I thought humility in spiritual matters is a virtue,” she said.

Santiago said that under Vatican 2, the Catholic Church no longer clings to the monopoly on truth.

“Under Vatican 2, priests and nuns should be treated like everyone else.  They are not special people just because they have joined a religious community.  It does not make them any more smarter or holier than you and me,” she said.

Santiago holds, not only a law doctorate, but also a masters in theology from the Maryhill School of Theology, where she got high marks.

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"I had the privilege to appear before the sala of Judge Miriam Defensor-Santiago of the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City, when I was a new lawyer in 1986. She was a very strict judge. You have to be in her sala at exactly 8:30 A.M., because she starts hearing at that time.

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U R G E N T !

13 February 2012

Senator Vicente Sotto III

Senate Majority Leader

By fax and by hand

Dear Senator Sotto:

This is to respectfully request you to relay the following message to our colleagues in caucus on Monday, February 13. Thank you.

My Vote:

I vote to obey the Supreme Court TRO on the foreign currency deposits of the Chief Justice, on the following grounds. These six grounds are based on the ideology that the impeachment court is not almighty, not absolute, not illimitable, and not more supreme than the Supreme Court.

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By

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago

(Keynote speech delivered at the joint annual convention of the Philippine Society of Hypertension, and Philippine Lipid and Atherosclerosis Society, held at the Crowne Plaza Galleria in Quezon City on 8 February 2012.)

Length of Time

The impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton was held in 1999. It began on January 7 and ended on February 12, with an acquittal. Thus, the Clinton trial lasted for just about a month. We are not going to be as lucky with the present impeachment trial, as I shall explain later.

When the US Senate acted as an impeachment court against federal judges, the shortest trial took a little more than a month; and the longest trial lasted about 14 months. The average length of the U.S. impeachment trials against federal judges is about four months.

In my considered estimate, our ongoing impeachment trial will last for about five months. It began in January, and will probably end by about May.

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Dear Senate media:

            I miss our daily banter and am desperately trying to get well.  I also miss the impeachment trial punctuated by certain personalities who have all the charm of show window mannequins.  But my health is not cooperating.  However, I shall be happy to hear from you for phone interviews, if the questions are not about the merits of the case.

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Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago was elected judge of the International Criminal Court by the Assembly of States Parties at elections held Monday, 12 December at the United Nations, New York.

Santiago is the first Filipino and the first Asian from a developing state to serve as ICC judge, thus earning a place of honor for the Philippines in ICC history.

Together with five other new judges, Santiago will take her oath of office this March, but will not immediately assume her post in The Hague, Netherlands, until the ICC calls her to report for duty.

Thus, it is likely that Santiago will remain as a senator in the next six months or even longer, depending on when she is called to The Hague.

The senator said she expects to play an active role as a trial judge in the impeachment case against Chief Justice Renato Corona, and to urge her fellow senators to pass the Reproductive Health bill, of which she is the author and co-sponsor.

“This is a victory for the Philippines in the international legal community.  The tribute belongs to President Benigno Aquino, who nominated me; foreign affairs secretary Albert del Rosario, who maximized his unerring generalship over all Philippine posts abroad; foreign affairs undersecretary Rafael Seguis, who was the campaign manager; and most of all to Ambassador Libran Cabactulan, the Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations, who was the model diplomat in networking with the UN ambassadors.  All members of the Philippine mission (embassy) in New York did splendid field work,” she said.

Santiago placed No. 1 in the first round of voting, followed by a candidate from Trinidad and Tobago.

At this writing, the second round and possibly other rounds still need to be conducted, in order to complete the number of six new judges.

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