MIRIAM SANTIAGO ON MATCHING PNoy WITH HEART
EVANGELISTA
MANILA, JUNE 1, 2012 (PHILSTAR,
POSTED MAY 20, 2012) WILL SOON FLOURISH By Wilson Lee Flores
- Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago is perhaps the country's most famous
judge, whether in the ongoing impeachment trial, as a feisty multi-awarded RTC
judge in Quezon City in the '80s, or next year going to Europe to serve as judge
in the prestigious International Criminal Court (ICC).
A consistent top honors graduate from grade school, high school,
University of the Philippines to University of Michigan, she has won the
Magsaysay Award for government service and was the leading presidential
candidate in the controversial 1992 election.
In the home stretch of the telenovela-like impeachment trial and a few days
before Chief Justice Renato Corona is scheduled to testify, Senator Miriam D.
Santiago gave Philippine STAR an exclusive interview at her home. One of the
unique features of her house is her most impressive and extensive library,
because she loves books. Here are excerpts from the interview:
PHILIPPINE STAR: Is it true, as some media reports claim, that you have
sided with actor Raymart Santiago and his wife actress Claudine Barretto against
Mon Tulfo in their airport brawl? Why?
SEN. MIRIAM DEFENSOR SANTIAGO: Not true. Santiago is a distant relative of my
husband, but Mon Tulfo is also his friend.
Any legal advice from an ex-judge to both sides?
I counseled them to settle out of court. I said among us in the judiciary
before, the common aphorism is: "The best case is the case settled out of
court." We judges are often asked what is the best case, whether civil or
criminal, etc. I always say the best case is the one settled out of court,
because you see so much burden on all parties, so much costs in terms of time,
money and emotional energy.
Why are you so passionate and sometimes volcanic in anger as senator judge
now and as a judge before in QC?
I actually prefer to be a scholar in the ivory tower, but there's so much
fire in my belly. Maybe it's because I graduated from a Catholic campus. I was
very conservative before, but I remember what the nuns taught me, that we should
fight evil. That's why I allow myself righteous indignation against evil,
corruption. The problem with our country is many people are smug and complacent,
especially those belonging to the elite and the middle class. They demand many
services like peace and order, physical security in their gated communities and
public services, but when it comes to prosecuting the corrupt, all of them
withdraw into their shells like turtles!
Our Philippine history seems filled with many gross miscarriages of
justice. As the country's most famous judge, can you comment on the unjust death
sentences meted to Dr. Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio and many others?
There is no excuse at all for all the deaths of Filipino heroes, especially
those who fought the colonialism of Spain and then America. Colonialism was pure
evil.
Your comments on the Spanish regime's kangaroo court which tried Rizal?
On Dr. Jose Rizal, of course, the charges in that trial were a farce. The
colonizers believed he had to be eliminated, because his thoughts were becoming
popular.
What about the President Emilio Aguinaldo's government trial and death
penalty for Katipunan founder Andres Bonifacio, wasn't that an unresolved
injustice?
In the case of Andres Bonifacio, he appears to have faced trumped-up charges,
and he had no chance. The rationalization was that he was splitting the
revolutionary forces, that this would spell certain doom for the revolution at
that time. He had to be eliminated in the name of solidarity. Maybe if we can go
deeper into it, maybe there was egotism at work in this case.
As a topnotch lawyer, life-long student of law and jurist, what other
cases of miscarriage of justice do you remember in our jurisprudence?
There was a certain Justice Perfecto, who felt so strongly about a certain
decision in a case, that he affixed his signature with his own blood. Law
students consider him an icon. Maybe he was a justice after the we got our
independence, after the Commonwealth era.
What is your opinion of the anti-colonial revolutionary hero Macario
Sakay, whose death penalty under the American colonial regime was penned by
Judge Ignacio Villamor who eventually was appointed president of the University
of the Philippines?
Macario Sakay… he was a rebel. He was convicted, because he clearly violated
the law, he never hedged it, he publicly violated the law. In effect, Sakay
became a prisoner of conscience. He was defying society at that time, he was
enthroning the concept of the individual against state conformism. I would call
him a freedom fighter.
During World War II, many among our political elite became collaborators
with the Japanese invaders; some claim to have done good and almost all of them
were not punished. How should we judge them?
In hot water: Former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Chief Justice
Renato Corona
It's very dangerous to be judgemental, it's very easy to cast aspersions
after the event. Sometimes morality can enter into gray areas. Some of the
collaborators were clearly self-interested mercenaries, but some of the
collaborators believed if they would cooperate with the Japanese invaders, they
would be able to mitigate the sufferings of the Filipino people. But if I were
to be given the choice, I would follow the example of Chief Justice Jose Abad
Santos. He refused to collaborate, for he believed that under no circumstances
should evil be supported or collaborated with. He kept his heart pure. He was
given a choice between death and collaboration using different kinds of
rationalizations, but he chose to die, that is the definition of a hero.
Moving to a less somber topic, it is true you recently visited the GMA-7
set of the teleserye Legacy co-starring Heart Evangelista and other showbiz
stars? She once told me her family is close to you and you're like a mother to
her?
[PHOTO -Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, left, listens to a
mass during the 40th wedding anniversary of Philippine Senator Miriam Santiago
and Narciso at Manila's Cathedral, Philippines on Sunday June 19, 2011. At right
is Filipino actress Heart Evangelista. (AP Photo/Aaron
Favila]
(Smiles) Yes, I'm close to Heart and her family. It's paradoxical, because
our interests are so polar. Her mother Cecille is my friend and we both had
agreed that I'd be Heart's surrogate mother since she was still a teenager, and
she's spectacularly innocent about the world.
Any advice you gave to Heart?
Yes, I gave her a book entitled How to Act, but I occasionally teach her that
the world can take a lot of evil, and that she should take it, or come to terms
with it. She has a fragile personality.
You had invited President Noynoy to be best man in your wedding
anniversary and paired with the beautiful Heart Evangelista. Were you trying to
play Cupid?
(Laughs) Yes, I was trying to!
What happened? Why no success in your matchmaking attempt?
He got called to Malacañang, for some emergency. He was not able to attend
the reception. That's what they call, in a Shakespeare play, "foiled again!"
(Laughs)
If he had not disappeared, what would you have encouraged?
(Laughs) I would have wanted President Noynoy Aquino and Heart to sing a
duet. He wanted to because he said he wanted to know if he could make the grade,
and Heart was already prepared for the song. The President didn't want to be a
wedding sponsor, because he has the belief that if you stand as a sponsor at a
wedding, you will remain unmarried.
You had told me before that as a judge, you realized many of Philippine
court cases actually only involved egos? Can you elaborate?
I noticed a high number of cases are actually amor propio cases, or ego
cases. I knew this type of cases are headed to the Court of Appeals and the
Supreme Court. I believe Filipinos should adopt the attitude that a controversy
is not always an either/or proposition — either he dies or I die in the attempt.
(Laughs) That should not be the case. The courts should be a venue for
mediation, not retribution, unless the cases involve heinous crimes.
Speaking of a clash of egos, is Noynoy's impeachment crusade against
Corona an amor propio case or a gigantic clash of egos?
(Laughs) I don't think this is a "game of thrones."
Why do you say so?
I think it is a genuine disagreement on the concept in political
science of checks and balances in a democracy. The President is trying to prove
that he possesses authority to influence the Supreme Court, while the Chief
Justice is trying to pursue the so-called independence of the judiciary, to make
it impervious to the President's political program.
So it's really not a clash of egos?
It is not just a clash of egos. It's actually a much deeper conflict: how far
can the President go, how far can the Chief Justice also go? These are serious
concepts of democracy.
Why are you sometimes very passionate or adamant in the impeachment trial
proceedings?
Occasionally I get indignant, because I have a habit of not "suffering fools
gladly" — to quote William Shakespeare. In other words, when I see a moron, I
want to kill the moron with my bare hands. (Laughs) I believe the constitutional
right to life does not include morons! (Laughs)
Outside of the impeachment and politics, do you personally know Noynoy and
Corona?
Yes, I know them well. I got to know President Aquino when I was serving in
the government of his mother President Cory Aquino.
Critics of P-Noy claim that he lacks work ethic. How was he as your
colleague in the Senate?
When we were together in the Senate, I remember he worked with me on a bill.
I think we were protecting sidewalks for pedestrians. I noticed he was very
conscientious about his duties as committee chairperson… I was struck by his
dedication to his duty.
What about Chief Justice Corona?
In the case of the Chief Justice, we were always paired up in weddings (as
godparents). He is soft-spoken, humble, modest, and he has a wry sense of humor.
His wife and he are very religious. That's why I know these two parties, the
President and the Chief Justice.
Noynoy has repeatedly told media that he is not seeking to personally
influence you or the senator judges; is this true, at least in your case?
The President certainly has not directly or indirectly tried to influence me,
to his credit. I've not gotten any threats, even if I exhibit my outrage about
any irregularities in the proceedings, but I do get flak from identifiable
gunslingers in the social media, because they follow the same line of attack
over and over again. Obviously, they play the same playbook.
You maintain that you were cheated in the 1992 presidential election by
Fidel V. Ramos. Was your situation the same as that of the late Fernando Poe,
Jr. who believed that he was allegedly cheated by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo?
The problem with that election during my time was the manual counting of
votes. Millions of my supporters said that I had won in the voting but I had
lost in the counting. During the first five days of the election count, I was
always number one from random results coming from different provinces, then
there was power blackout all over the country, then all of a sudden I had lost
my lead… The international news services were then already describing me as the
president-elect. The new election results had a lot of erasures and snowpakes,
so that's why I call Fidel Ramos a snowpake president!
Have you ever met FVR ever since?
We try to avoid each other. Once, we met during the time of President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo… Also Joe de Venecia set up a photo-op of us together, the
three of us, but the following week I hit him all over again. (Laughs)
Why are you still angry at FVR?
It's impossible for me to conciliate myself with evil. It was so easy for me
to concede, because I was offered money, but I refused because it would have
been exchanging principle for cash.
Going back again to my previous question, was FPJ, like you, also a victim
of alleged massive election cheating in 2004?
In the case of FPJ, I'm not familiar with the circumstances, because he was
not leading the election count in the first five days. In the case of FPJ, I
think the polls and the results were erratic. In my case, my many youth
supporters wanted to go to the streets to challenge the proclaimed government,
but I discouraged them because I wanted to protect them from rifle fire from the
soldiers.
Do you think FPJ should not have become despondent over the alleged
election cheating and that he should have continued fighting on like you did?
Yes, it's maybe because FPJ was not a lawyer like me. He should have run for
the Senate, he could have used the Senate as a platform.
As a jurist and law expert, how do you view the case of ex-President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo now?
In the first place, there's the issue of her health, so she has sought
medical help abroad. I'm very concerned, because the constitution provides —
"neither the right to travel can be impaired except in the instance of national
security or public health."
I am very concerned, because unlike in the United States, the right to travel
in the Philippines is constitutionally protected and the rule is when there is a
constitutionally protected right, it should not be denied, except if there is
compelling state interest. So the burden of proof is in the state, that there is
a threat to national security.
For example, that she might go abroad to raise an army to stage a revolt? Or
a case of injury to the public safety if we allow her to go abroad, but there is
no evidence whatsoever of that intent. Finally, the third requirement is that
her trip will pose a threat to public health.
If this constitutional right to travel is tested, who or what court should
eventually decide?
Well, eventually, it will be decided in trial court, and so in effect, GMA's
fate will depend on whether the Chief Justice is found guilty and is
automatically removed from office or not.
Chief Justice Corona is testifying next week in your Impeachment Court.
Your advice to him?
No special advice, except the general advice of any judge in court: Tell the
truth or I'll throw you in jail! (Laughs)
Senate President Enrile seems so impressive at age 88. Why do you think
that is?
I've heard that he has gotten stem cell treatment, like Erap did also.
The 83-year-old Justice Cuevas is also remarkable in wit, intellect and
energy. Do you think he has had stem cell treatments too like Enrile did?
(Laughs) I wonder…
What about the tireless Imelda Romualdez Marcos, also 83 years old? Stem
cells, too?
Well, all of the people who are still very active beyond the age of 80, it is
valid to speculate about their possibly having had stem cell treatments. Some of
them admit, while others may not.
Medical science is predicting that people of my generation may die at age
100, no longer at 80. I dread the thought, I don't want to be 100 years old,
unless they discover the fountain of youth! (Laughs) Some in medical science
even predict that humans will eventually live up to 1,000 years, but that's
complicated, we'll have to reduce the rate of birth in the world.
Last but not the least, how would you like history to remember Miriam
Defensor Santiago?
I don't want history to remember me at all.
Why?
I just don't think my life would be possibly interesting in Catholic terms.
My life is characterized by cosmic meaninglessness.
Really the final question: Aside from you, who else do you think are good
men or women who could have been good presidents of the Philippines?
There are many good people in the Philippines who could have been good
leaders, but they don't want to sacrifice their peace of mind. They think: "Why
should I submit myself to cretins?" However, in my case, I think differently:
"Show me a cretin, and I'll step on it!" (Laughs)
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
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