6 Feb
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.
13 Dec
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.
2 Dec
Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, a constitutional law expert and former RTC judge, said that efforts to force Chief Justice Renato Corona to inhibit himself in the Gloria Arroyo cases would result in a “damaged democracy.”
“Those crying for the inhibition of the Chief Justice are trying to be a law unto themselves. They seek no less than the unconstitutional power to determine who will judge what cases. The Constitution does not grant that power to anybody, no matter how strident or self-righteous,” she said.
Santiago insisted that pressuring any judge or justice to inhibit himself directly violates the principle of independence of the judiciary.
“If a howling mob is allowed to pressure the chief justice or any justice to inhibit, that would serve as a calamitous precedent. Any litigant would then be able to pressure an impartial judge to inhibit, in order to obtain a group decision from the substitute,” she said.
Santiago noted that the senior associate justice, although an Arroyo appointee, proved in his later decisions to be an arch-critic on Gloria Arroyo.
“In effect the pressure on Corona to inhibit is an effort to substitute him with Carpio. If it can be said that Corona might be biased in favor of Arroyo, it can also be said that Carpio might be biased against Arroyo. We cannot allow the composition of the Supreme Court in a certain case to be determined by an unelected exterior group on the basis of the group’s own political biases,” she said.
2 Dec
Find out more about the Red Whistle Campaign in their website and Facebook page. Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago filed the Philippine HIV and AIDS Policy and Plan Act of 2011 in recognition of World AIDS Day.
1 Dec
Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago filed the Philippine Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Policy and Plan Act of 2011 in recognition of World AIDS Day.
Senate Bill No. 3072 seeks to establish a National HIV and AIDS Plan that will create a road map on HIV and AIDS with clear strategies, targets, framework, and funding. The bill also hopes to correct the inadequacies of the existing law in addressing the HIV epidemic.
“The HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Act (Republic Act No.8504), enacted in 1998, was once hailed as a model legislation, but the spread of HIV is outpacing the 13-year old law. The preventive interventions that it prescribes are no longer fully aligned with what years of experience and evidence on HIV prevention recommend,” Santiago said.
The senator also said that the HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Act lacks enabling mechanisms to enforce its human rights provisions. According to her, the law also failed to provide clarity on the continuing confusion around the structure governing the country’s HIV response.
“The response to the epidemic has been marked with complacency, lack of political leadership, and reckless disregard of evidence-informed strategies and approaches that could prevent the spread of the virus,” Santiago said.
29 Nov
On the RH bill: Who among the Senate leaders are allegedly using delaying tactics?
What we are hoping is we stop now the period of interpellations because this has gone on for so long. The interpellation has gone so far as to cover the chemical composition of a contraceptive pill! What is the relationship of the chemical composition of a tablet to the merits of the reproductive health bill? Our position with Sen. Pia Cayetano is that we should now move on to the period of amendments. However, we shall still be willing, during the period of amendments, to answer interpellations just in case there are still any left. That is at least so we can move forward because the public is now very restive.
In my last university symposium, 3,000 students expressed through their student leaders the suspicion that the length of time that has been taken by the interpellation is deliberately being resulted to as a delaying tactic. The student leaders there, who came from U.P., La Salle, and Pamantansan ng Lungsod ng Muntinlupa, declared that any senator who votes against RH will be considered by their group to be an anti-youth senator.
Who among the senators are causing the delay?
These are the officers of the Senate, since we have to obey what the officers tell us.
When shall you move to the period of amendments?
Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow. I still have to consult with Sen. Cayetano. It’s not in the agenda today. Normally, it is the Senate Majority Floor Leader who determines, after consultation with the Senate President, on what should be the agenda for the day.
25 Nov
Some 3,000 students of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Muntinlupa pledged thru social media, to urge Congress to vote on the Reproductive Health bill, after 10 years of legislative debates.
The students vowed to use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media at an assembly sponsored by the Forum for Family Planning and Development featuring Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, author of the RH bill.
Santiago was welcomed to Muntinlupa by Mayor Aldrin San Pedro, who was one of the special guests of the university.
24 Nov
Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago today filed Senate Bill No. 3069, which mandates the Department of Justice to apply with the Regional Trial Court for the issuance of a hold departure order (HDO) against an accused person under preliminary investigation.
If approved by Congress, the measure will, in effect, nullify DOJ Circular No. 41, and remove from the Secretary of Justice the power to issue HDOs against persons under investigation for alleged crimes committed.
23 Nov
On this morning’s Commission on Appointments hearing on the appointment of Mr. Domingo Lee as ambassador
This has been more or less a characteristic feature of the Commission on Appointments. If so much as just one senator or congressman has his curiosity unsatisfied, we have to keep on postponing the deliberations until all the questions have been answered, and the person involved—the congressman or senator from the Commission on Appointments—has already reached a conclusion on whether he should vote yes or no, meaning to say he will exercise his one-person veto. If we, for example, in this particular committee on foreign affairs, override Sen. Osmeña, who is interpellating, certainly he will exercise his veto in the plenary session. So it’s useless to stop him at this point. If he has anymore questions, we just have to wait until he feels that the nominee has satisfactorily answered his questions or not. That is for him to decide. We cannot stop him because, otherwise, it will be counterproductive. He will just exercise his one-person veto in the plenary session.
23 Nov
On the calls for Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s resignation from office
Ang lagi kong sinasabi, kung sinumang opisyal ang involved, iyan ay para sa kanya, hindi siya pwedeng mapilit. Personal decision niya iyan, nasa kanya iyon. Halimbawa, kung masyadong matagal ang absence niya, for delicadeza dapat na lang siyang magresign. Ako noon, nag-leave for six months dahil may sakit nga ako, nagtanong muna ako sa human resources kung kailangan kong magresign kung ganoon katagal. Pinag-aralan nila ang civil service law, at wala naman palang minimum limit iyan, kaya hindi pwedeng sabihin na gayong six months akong absent pwede na akong magresign. So it is for the House of Representatives as a collegiate body to decide whether the number of absences has already exceeded what they consider reasonable. But remember, there was one member before from the Visayas region who was absent, I think, for years and he was not compelled to resign. So that will have to be a private decision from Rep. Arroyo because, after all, it will concern her health.
Where do you want Miriam, in the Senate or in the ICC?
Total Voters: 2,539
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