Miriam Defensor Santiago's Blog

MIRIAM TO ICU; THANKS SUPPORTERS

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago who is sick and suffered complication, was rushed by ambulance to the Makati Medical Center (MMC) last Monday, 30 May 2016.

This was announced today Wednesday, by her husband Narciso “Jun” Santiago. He said that visitors are not allowed and that gifts will not be accepted, such as flowers and other blooms.

On the night of Tuesday, 31 May 2016, Miriam was transferred from her private room in MMC to the Intensive Care Unit.

Jun said that Miriam is bearing well with her trademark sense of humor.

Miriam said that she thanks all her family, friends, supporters, fans, and others who helped pray for her recovery and sent their well-wishes on Facebook.

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MIRIAM NUDGES RIVALS ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Presidential candidate Miriam Defensor Santiago, an elected judge of the International Criminal Court, challenged her rivals in the May elections to include human rights concerns in their list of priorities.

Santiago on Monday lamented that three of her four fellow contestants for Malacañang failed to respond to the questionnaire sent by international observer Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Only Santiago and Liberal Party bet Mar Roxas shared their human rights views, HRW revealed. Vice President Jejomar Binay, Sen. Grace Poe, and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte did not answer the questionnaire.

“Human rights should be at the forefront of the agenda of any person running for public office. A rights-based approach in public policy has historically proven to be most effective,” the senator said.

The list of questions HRW sent out as early as March 22 quizzed candidates on the issues of impunity, violence against indigenous groups, the Reproductive Health (RH) Law, journalist killings, summary executions, the Anti-Torture Law, persons displaced due to conflict, and the HIV/AIDS situation.

“The Philippines has made broad strides in human rights policy in the past decade,” Santiago said, citing the passage of important laws that she either authored or supported in the Senate. These include:

Republic Act No. 9710 or the Magna Carta of Women;
R.A. No. 9745 or the Anti-Torture Law;
R.A. No. 9851 of the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity;
R.A. No. 10354, or the RH Law;
R.A. No. 10368, or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act;
R.A. No. 10361, or the Kasambahay Law;
R.A. No. 10353, or the Anti-Enforced Disappearances Law.

She also considered as gains the Philippine commitment to the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons, and accession to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, both in 2011.

But Santiago stressed that “policies aimed at promoting human rights are meaningless unless fully and wholeheartedly implemented.”

She cited as challenges failure to convict a perpetrator of torture despite the passage of the Anti-Torture Act, and hurdles in the implementation of RH Law amid a hold order on contraceptive implants and congressional budget cuts.

“The culture of impunity threatens to perpetuate human rights abuses. Cases that need to be immediately resolved include the continuous disappearance of activists working in the countryside, allegedly because of military operations; the deaths of some 50 media workers in Maguindanao; and the recent deadly skirmish between elite cops and Moro rebels in Mamasapano,” Santiago added.

The senator also tagged as urgent the need to protect the rights of vulnerable members of society, including children, women, and indigenous groups, especially in times of disaster and conflict.

“Child labor remains rampant, with underage workers reported even in the most dangerous of sectors such as small-scale mining. Children are also being recruited by rebel, terrorist, and paramilitary groups,” she said.

Santiago added that in the aftermath of disasters, stories of abuse against children and women abound. “The Philippines must address with urgency the militarization of indigenous communities,” the senator further said.

Human rights priorities under her administration, Santiago said, include:

The swift approval of the Freedom of Information Law, to open the military to scrutiny amid allegations of abuses and to protect journalists;
The abolition of private armies and a review of state sponsorship of militias and paramilitary groups;
Full and conscientious implementation of the RH Law;
An immediate review of the Inter-Agency Committee on Extra-Legal Killings, Enforced Disappearances, Torture, and Other Grave Violations of the Right to Life;
The introduction of a national quick response hotline for enforced disappearances and torture;
The urgent passage of the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons Act; and
The declaration of a national emergency to address the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Santiago, a widely respected expert in constitutional and international law, is also known as a strong defender of human rights. She first became popular as a trial court judge for a landmark human rights ruling during martial law.

MIRIAM TO RIVALS: CHAMPION THE ENVIRONMENT

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, the presidential candidate named the “greenest” by environment advocates, urged her rivals on Friday to adopt a people-centered approach in their environment, climate change, and disaster risk reduction platforms.

“We are resource-rich but income-poor, partly because we view environmental protection as a roadblock to development. That should not be the case. What we are doing is ensuring that whatever gains we get now will be enjoyed by generations to come,” Santiago said in time for Earth Day.

The senator’s statement comes amid accolades from at least three coalitions of environment groups for championing resource conservation, climate change adaptation, and disaster risk reduction in her program of government.

Santiago was named the “greenest candidate” by the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment for her track record. The same group named Liberal Party bet Mar Roxas the “meanest” to the environment.

She was also lauded by a green group initiative called Luntiang Bayan: Boto Para sa Tao, Hayop at Kalikasan as the presidential candidate who has done the most for the environment, citing the numerous laws and bills she drafted.

The senator also topped the scorecards launched by the Green Thumb Coalition on Friday, bagging 79 percent in “people-centered sustainable development,” 78 percent in “human rights and integrity of creation,” and 50 percent in “climate justice.”

In her platform of government, Santiago highlighted the need for evidence-based planning. “To combat climate change, we must practice both mitigation and adaptation, and our decisions must be based on data and science,” she added.

Santiago also vowed to capacitate local government units to better implement environment protection, climate change and disaster risk reduction programs; take advantage of indigenous knowledge; and foster transparency in the sector.

The senator also wants to revisit the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, which she said allowed the market to dictate the country’s energy mix, and the Mining Act, citing research that the cost of mining activities outweighs the benefits.

“As president, I will fully and wholeheartedly implement the Renewable Energy Act, which I authored and sponsored in the Senate. The law is not working as it should be. It has been in operation for six years, but action has been slow, and our renewable energy supply remains small,” Santiago said.

She also vowed to push for the passage of the National Land Use Act, which can help in the management and efficient use of energy resources, and the Energy Efficiency Act, which encourages firms to improve energy use practices.

“We must look at environmental issues as development issues to prevent a detached approach in policy-making. We must realize that environmental degradation and climate change impact our health, economy, and survival,” Santiago said.

MIRIAM IN MINDANAO: WHY EXCLUDE ME IN SURVEYS?

The rousing welcome from thousands of supporters in Davao City Wednesday made presidential candidate Miriam Defensor Santiago question the credibility of “commercial surveys” that do not reflect the campus polls she has been topping.

“Gusto ko lang magtanong ngayon, maari ang sagot nandoon sa Metro Manila, bakit pag nag survey tungkol sa presidentiables, pag tinanong ang mga kabataan, sinong gusto mo maging presidente ng Pilipinas, from north to south, east and west, I’m always number one. Pero, pag nagpa-survey ang mga commercial firms, yung binabayaran, wala man lang ako doon. Nakaka-sama ng loob,” Santiago said.

She was speaking before a crowd of some 1,500 supporters at the University of the Philippines in Mindanao, the first campus she visited in the Mindanao area besides Capitol University in Cagayan de Oro City, the venue of the first presidential debate.

Santiago’s U.P. Mindanao speech came two days after she topped a new pre-election survey conducted in U.P. Diliman. The senator was chosen president by 57 percent or 405 of the total 710 respondents in the online survey by Pulse.

She was followed in that poll by Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, 13.5 percent; Sen. Grace Poe, 9 percent; Liberal Party bet Mar Roxas, 7.3 percent; and Vice President Jejomar Binay, 0.85 percent. Some 12 percent of respondents abstained.

Santiago has earlier discredited the recent results released by the two leading pollsters, noting that her supporters have reported anomalous survey methods, particularly the exclusion of her name in some of the survey questionnaires.

Her U.P. Mindanao trip caps Santiago’s busiest week so far in the campaign. She jump-started her campus tour on April 13 with a homecoming in U.P. Iloilo, then visited Saint Louis University in Baguio City and the Bulacan State University in Malalos.

At the sidelines of the commencement exercises in Bulacan, Santiago also confirmed that she will attend the third and final leg of the Commission on Elections-led presidential debates, which will be held in Pangasinan.

“I would like to elevate the level of discussion there. Puro na lang siraan ang mga kandidato,” she told reporters, referring to the ugly word war between the bets in the Visayas debate she skipped.

MIRIAM: VOTE, WORK IN GOV’T TO END CORRUPTION

Presidential candidate Miriam Defensor Santiago on Monday urged young Filipinos to participate in the elections and to join the government workforce to help change the culture of corruption.

“Be critical, vocal, and involved in the political process. We are a democratic country and it is our duty to keep our government in check,” the senator said in her speech before a crowd of 3,000 graduates and their parents at the Bulacan State University.

Santiago, the presidential candidate with the widest online following, also encouraged tech-savvy voters to use Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to voice their anger and frustration against the politicians who are driven by greed.

“Do not allow the rich and the powerful to be given special privileges. You have every right to be furious at all these corrupt politicians; because after all, it is our money that is being used to sustain their expensive lifestyles,” she added.

Asked at the sidelines of the graduation rites about another candidate’s controversial joke on rape, Santiago said her tough-talking rival “may have crossed the line,” but added that the voters ultimately have a choice.

“If the people do not like the remark, they can express it through the ballot, but otherwise, he has the right to free expression. That’s the way he expresses himself,” she told reporters.

The senator also warned millennials against the defeatist notion that the Philippines is a “a nation of helpless people,” adding that such a mindset is tantamount to surrendering the country to corrupt leaders.

“If you refuse to work in government because you think it is so corrupt, no one else will be left in government except the corrupt,” she said in Filipino, to cheers from the crowd. She instead advised the graduates to “change the system from within.”

Santiago has been recently been more actively campaigning with her running mate, Sen. Bongbong Marcos, in university campuses all over the country a month before Election Day.

She has also confirmed that she will join the third and last presidential debate in Pangasinan, and is scheduled to deliver a speech at the University of the Philippines Mindanao in Davao City on Wednesday, April 20.

In a week, the Santiago-Marcos tandem has visited three campuses: the University of the Philippines Visayas in Iloilo City, the Saint Louis University in Baguio City, and Bulacan State University in Malolos. The pair drew thousands of supporters in all venues.

MIRIAM: NO ONE BELIEVES SURVEYS

Presidential candidate Miriam Defensor Santiago belied the results of the latest pre-election surveys, as she urged the public on Friday to guard against “mind-conditioning” by moneyed candidates and their wealthy supporters.

Santiago, who has topped almost all campus and social media polls since the filing of certificates of candidacy, said reports have reached her that some pollsters have excluded her name in the survey forms distributed to respondents.

“No one believes surveys anymore because, in the first place, it’s all over social media that my name has been removed from some of the forms used in these surveys so that respondents would be forced to vote for other candidates,” the senator said.

Several individuals who claim to have been respondents for pre-election surveys charge that they had to write down Santiago’s name on the survey form because it was not on the options provided. Others said they chose “Undecided” instead.

In her homecoming speech before supporters at the University of the Philippines Visayas in Iloilo City, Santiago urged millennials to “use their wits and not vote for nitwits,” in the coming elections.

The polls Santiago is inclined to believe are those led by student organizations or campus publications. She has topped almost all such surveys, including:

De La Salle University Manila, 75 percent;
Polytechnic University of the Philippines, 64 percent;
Universilty of the Philippines (U.P.) Los Baños, 86 percent;
University of Santo Tomas, 66 percent;
Ateneo De Manila University, 36.6 percent;
U.P. Manila, 59.5 percent;
University of Northern Philippines, 35.85 percent;
Malayan Colleges Laguna, 54.7 percent;
Colegio de San Juan de Letran, 58.5 percent;
U.P. Diliman, 41.6 percent;
Holy Angel University, 40 percent;
University of Asia and the Pacific, 43.2 percent;
Adamson University, 64 percent;
Ateneo de Naga University, 37.4 percent;
U.P. Baguio, 78.2 percent;
Philippine Normal University, 76 percent;
West Visayas State University, 47 percent; and
a U.P. cross-campus survey (Diliman, Los Baños, and Baguio), 56.5 percent.

Santiago’s campaign for the May elections is focused on campus tours, similar to the 1992 campaign which almost won her the presidency. She is scheduled to deliver a speech at the main campus of the Saint Louis University in Baguio City Saturday.

NO ROOM FOR ‘CORRUPT, INCOMPETENT’ IN MIRIAM ADMIN

Presidential candidate Miriam Defensor Santiago on Friday vowed to restore meritocracy in government service by appointing individuals with solid track records in administrative positions and by pushing for an anti-political recommendations law.

“I will recruit the best, the most competent, the most experienced, the most honest men and women to assist me run my administration,” Santiago said, as netizens continue to criticize certain members of the Aquino Cabinet for alleged incompetence.

Santiago won the Ramon Magsaysay Award, dubbed the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize, as Immigration commissioner in 1988. She was cited for “bold and moral leadership in cleaning up a graft-ridden government agency.”

“Political parasites, incompetents, and unproductive workers will have no place in my administration,” the senator said. She also promised to streamline the bureaucracy to eliminate redundant agencies and positions.

“I will start by conducting a swift review of all programs and projects of government. There will be a task force for each major department as soon as I assume office,” Santiago said.

In August 2013, Santiago filed the Anti-Political Recommendations Bill (Senate Bill No. 1198). The bill remained pending at the committee level, however, and is not likely to move until the close of the 16th Congress in June.

The bill, if approved, will penalize the acts of making and soliciting political recommendations, thus limiting to agencies the discretion to appoint, promote, assign or transfer designation, interim or otherwise.

“Many public officials use their powers to influence the appointment of persons to government posts through recommendations. Those who solicit political recommendations are not always the most competent public servants,” Santiago said.

An anti-political recommendations law will cover even the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police, which Santiago said have extensively been eroded by the so-called “padrino system.”

Besides the anti-political recommendations law, Santiago’s anti-corruption agenda includes the swift passage of the freedom of information bill, the anti-epal bill, the anti-premature campaigning bill, and the anti-political dynasty bill.

BREAK FREE FROM U.S., MIRIAM SAYS AMID BALIKATAN

Amid the fresh round of military exercises between the Philippines and the U.S. and a lingering territorial dispute with China, presidential candidate Miriam Defensor Santiago urged the government to move toward self-reliance and end its dependence on American forces for national security.

“The Philippines will have to once and for all abandon its full-spectrum dependence on America as a guarantor of its national security,” said Santiago, who is a major critic of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) at the Senate.

The senator noted that both the VFA and the EDCA are silent on the extent of American commitments to the Philippines, while imperiling the country’s sovereignty and welfare. It is also unclear whether the Mutual Defense Treaty of 1951 covers the West Philippine Sea disputes, she added.

“Instead of relying on the U.S., or acquiescing to China, the Philippines will have to augment its surveillance, reconnaissance, and intelligence-gathering capabilities in order to effectively monitor developments in its surrounding waters, preferably at least within its 200- nautical-miles exclusive economic zone,” Santiago said.

She then vowed a refurbished, empowered, and well-equipped Philippine Coast Guard if elected president, to protect the country’s territorial integrity through civilian law enforcement operations against illegal, underreported, and unregulated fishing, especially from China and Vietnam.

Santiago said white-hull coast guard forces, not grey-hulled naval vessels, should primarily be deployed in the West Philippine Sea. “The moment the Philippines employs naval vessels for law-enforcement operations, as it did during the Scarborough Shoal standoff in 2012, it risks escalation and all-out war,” she added.

The senator also said that in the issue of territorial integrity, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) should be developed only second to the Coast Guard. She noted, however, that it is crucial for the AFP to adopt a more outward, maritime-centered security doctrine, instead of focusing on domestic security.

“Obviously, the Philippines or any regional state can never match Chinese defense spending, but we will have to have to develop minimum deterrence capabilities that allow us to resist and inflict sufficient retaliation if China continues to undermine Philippine territorial integrity,” Santiago said.

Once elected, Santiago said she will fortify Philippine presence in disputed areas, by effectively maintaining, if not augmenting, its facilities in Pag-Asa, Ayungin, and other features under its control, in order to provide minimum necessary protection against Chinese adventurism.

“So long as we don’t permanently alter the nature of disputed features, we will not be violating the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS),” said Santiago, who is also an international law expert. She nonetheless said her government will leverage on the outcome of the Philippine-initiated arbitration case.

The senator said her government will ensure that Philippine relations with China are not defined only by territorial dispute. Besides engaging with China on key areas of cooperation, a Santiago presidency will also work with fellow Asean countries to create an optimal level of regional unity on the issue of the West Philippine Sea.

“The Philippines must ensure that it adopts, as much as possible, an equi-balancing strategy towards both China and America. To push back against Chinese adventurism by deepening Philippine dependence on another power runs counter to the very logic of protecting its national sovereignty,” Santiago said.

MIRIAM: NAIA COURTING ‘WORST AIRPORT’ TITLE ANEW

Presidential candidate Miriam Defensor Santiago on Monday warned that the five-hour blackout that stranded thousands of passengers threatens to put the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) back in the list of worst airports in the world.

Santiago, laureate of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for government service said the administration must immediately investigate the NAIA-3 incident on Saturday and remove from office those who are found responsible.

“The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) seems eager to regain the ‘world’s worst airport’ title which it lost only in 2015, not only for inconveniencing passengers, but for not working as it should,” the senator said.

The NAIA was the world’s worst airport from 2011 to 2013, and the fourth worst in 2014, according to online travel website Guide to Sleeping in Airports, which ranks airports based on comfort, convenience, cleanliness and customer service.

Santiago was responding to news that as of Sunday, some 80 domestic flights from NAIA Terminal 3 have been cancelled and another 80 international and local flights have been delayed due to the blackout, affecting some 15,000 passengers.

The airport administration blamed the outage on a Manila Electric Company (Meralco) supply trip, and claimed that even after Meralco restored power, the NAIA remained without electricity. Meralco has meanwhile denied a power outage.

Santiago, for her part, said that the NAIA must have uninterrupted power supply. “Assuming for the sake of argument that the Meralco line tripped, where were the generators? The explanation that they were not working is unacceptable,” she added.

The infrastructure agenda Santiago posted on her website includes the development of a modern international airport. The NAIA runway design, she said, is one of the main factors for congestion.

“The runways are perpendicular to each other, barring planes from using one runway when the other is in use. If NAIA will be expanded, we must build runways parallel to each other,” the senator said.

“In the meantime, it would be wise to reallocate some flights to the airport in Clark, which is currently underutilized. Clark Airport should complement and not necessarily replace NAIA,” she added.

MIRIAM CONDEMNS COTABATO VIOLENCE

Presidential candidate Miriam Defensor Santiago called inhuman the deadly dispersal of farmers and indigenous peoples who barricaded a Kidapawan City highway on Friday in protest of insufficient food supply in their areas.

Santiago, a constitutional expert, said the government should be held accountable for the violence that killed one person and wounded some 30 others, adding that the act violated the constitutional right to freedom of assembly.

She was referring to the Constitution, Article 3, Section 4, which guarantees, along with the freedom of speech, of expression, and of the press, “the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.”

“It is vile enough that this administration has failed to support the farmers and lumads of Kidapawan during the prolonged drought in Mindanao. But it is downright inhuman for them to shoot at the same people begging for help,” the senator said.

Media outfits reported that the violence erupted after police and security personnel attempted to disperse the groups blockading the Cotabato-Davao Highway. When the protesters resisted, the armed personnel allegedly opened fire.

Santiago said the incident should immediately be investigated and those guilty be swiftly brought to justice. She also urged the administration to improve support for the agriculture sector to consistently ensure sufficient food supply.

“In the first place, there would not have been a protest if only these people felt compassion from their leaders. This government cannot claim to be pro-poor when it answers pleas for help with bursts of gunshot,” the senator said.

Santiago also lamented the death of her proposed Right to Adequate Food Framework Act (Senate Bill No. 2137), which could have helped put in place mechanisms to ensure food supply despite dry spells and other phenomena.

The bill seeks to establish a Commission on the Right to Adequate Food, which will be tasked, along with the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, to manage food supply during emergencies.

It also seeks to impose the penalty of imprisonment of six years and one day to 12 years against any public or private person who deliberately starves or denies access to food to any individual or group.