Breaking News

29 September 2006

Miriam Pushes Multi-Million Damage Suits vs. Billboard Owners
Asks SC to Probe TROs

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, expressing outrage at the deaths and damage caused by fallen billboards during Typhoon Milenyo, urged Metro Manila city mayors to sue for million-peso damages every owner of a fallen billboard.

She also urged the Supreme Court to investigate Metro Manila judges who have issued temporary restraining orders (TROs) against the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) or city mayors who tried to tear down giant billboards for being public nuisances.

“Under the Civil Code, these giant billboards are a nuisance because they injure and endanger the safety of others, offend the senses, and obstruct the free passage of public streets and highways,” she said.

Santiago explained that under the Civil Code, mayors can order city engineers to abate or tear down billboards, without judicial proceedings.

“All giant billboards should be torn down immediately, and judges should not issue TROs. Those torn down by the typhoon should not be restored,” she said.

Santiago cited the Civil Code, Article 701: “If a civil action is brought by reason of a public nuisance, such action shall be commenced by the city or municipal mayor.”

The senator insisted that the typhoon did not exonerate the billboard owners, whom she accused of corporate greed.

She cited the Civil Code, Article 23: “Even when an act or event causing damage to another’s property was not due to the fault or negligence of the defendant, the latter shall be liable for indemnity, if through the act or event he was benefited.”

About a year ago, Santiago filed a Senate bill called “The Anti-Billboard Blight Act of 2006.” It was assigned to the Senate committee on public works chaired by Senator Ramon Revilla Jr.

For several months, Santiago pushed the negotiations between Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials and advertising firms to produce a bill
acceptable to both government and business.

After public hearings presided by Santiago, the bill is now ready for sponsorship on the Senate floor, but Revilla prefers for Santiago to sponsor and defend it during floor debates.

But Santiago could not sponsor the bill on the floor, because the Senate is giving priority to bills certified as urgent by Malacañang, such as the Biofuels Act, of which she is also the sponsor.

“If necessary, I shall appeal to President Arroyo to certify my anti-billboard blight bill as urgent,” Santiago vowed.

“Metro Manila is one of the ugliest and the most unsafe capitals in the world, because of these giant billboards. These public hazards are driven by pure corporate greed, without any sense of social responsibility. It’s time to teach business a lesson,” Santiago said.

The senator said her bill is strongly supported by Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane, MMDA Chair Bayani Fernando, Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, Manila Mayor Jose Atienza, and other city mayors, whose hands are tied for lack of a definitive law passed by Congress.

Santiago, who is ill with anorexia, said she plans to report back for work in the Senate by Monday, and hopes to sponsor the bill before the Senate break that starts October 14.

“I’ll take any medication just to get out of bed, so I can stop this billboard blight. It’s madness,” said the feisty senator.

-o0o-

Breaking News

27 September 2006

MIRIAM CALLS FOR SENATE PROBE ON UP ADMIN-COLLEGIAN ROW

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago today filed a Resolution calling for an investigation of the standoff between the editorial board of the Philippine Collegian and the University of the Philippines administration that has resulted in the discontinued publication of the Collegian.

The Collegian has failed to publish its weekly issue for a month now allegedly due to the refusal of UP officials to release its printing funds. UP officials reportedly insist that a public bidding for the selection of a printing press for the Collegian be held first before any publication funds can be released.

According to the senator, she filed the Resolution because she is “very interested” in the fate of the Collegian. Santiago was the first female editor in chief of the Collegian in 1968. The chief of her media bureau, Jeanie Bacong, was also an editor in chief of the Collegian.

As Collegian editor in chief, Santiago objected to Philippine military participation in the war in Vietnam, and exposed UP involvement with the Dow Chemical Company in Vietnam-related chemical weapons research. Based on purloined university documents given to her secretly "in the dead of night," her editorial, "Dow is Here," revealed that the company had leased research facilities at the UP College of Agriculture at Los Baños. The editorial was reprinted verbatim in a popular Manila daily.
Embarrassed, then UP President Carlos Romulo tried to persuade her to reveal her midnight source, but she refused.

In her Resolution, Santiago said that given the clear policy of Republic Act No. 7079, or the Campus Journalism Act of 1991, to protect the freedom of the press at the campus level and to promote the development and growth of campus journalism in the country, the fiscal autonomy of student publications must be recognized and upheld.

At the same time, she said, disbursements of student publication funds must be made according to proper accounting and auditing guidelines to guard against corruption and misfeasance.

-o0o-

Breaking News

26 September 2006

MIRIAM: SC WILL VOID PEOPLE’S INITIATIVE

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, a constitutional law expert, shocked administration stalwarts by predicting that the Supreme Court will declare “unconstitutional for lack of legal basis” the people’s initiative for charter change, which she called “dead on arrival.”

“Using the words of an old decision, the people’s initiative petition is a patent illegality which, when it rears its ugly head, should be slain on sight,” Santiago said.

The senator said that the present people’s initiative is illegal on three grounds: it defies judicial precedent; it is not limited to an amendment but constitutes a revision which is prohibited by the present charter; and it has no budgetary appropriation for the necessary plebiscite.

“The first fatal flaw of the people’s initiative is that it defies the Supreme Court ruling in the 1997 case of Defensor Santiago v. Comelec, where the Court required that there should first be a law passed by Congress providing for a people’s initiative on charter change,” said Santiago.

Congress until now has failed to act on the bill filed by Santiago, who won the 1997 case by personally arguing it in the Supreme Court.

To support her first argument, Santiago cited the legal principle stare decisis et non quieta movere, which means to adhere to judicial precedents, or prior decided cases.

“According to the doctrine of stare decisis, when the court has once laid down a principle of law as applicable to a certain state of facts, it will adhere to that principle and apply it to all future cases, where the facts are substantially the same, regardless of whether the parties are the same. The facts are the same: there is still no law passed by Congress for a people’s initiative on charter change,” Santiago said.

The senator said that a split vote in the Supreme Court is not a ground for disturbing a precedent.

“Defensor Santiago v. Comelec is an authority or binding precedent in the Supreme Court, because the very point is again in controversy. The split voting is immaterial. This doctrine is grounded on the theory that security and certainty require that an accepted and established legal principle should be followed. The Supreme Court should not depart from precedent,” she said.

To support her second argument, Santiago said that the Constitution explicitly limits a people’s initiative to an amendment of the Constitution, which necessarily excludes the power to revise the charter.

“The present proposal of certain talkative administration stalwarts constitutes an entire revision and is not a mere amendment. It will replace our presidential with a parliamentary system. It will abolish the Senate and create a unicameral parliament. It will transfer executive powers from a nationally elected president to a prime minister elected by members of parliament. These measures together constitute a revision and not a mere amendment,” she said.

“The people’s initiative advocates are long on enthusiasm but short on law. They are also very economical with the legal truth,” she scoffed.

To support her third argument, Santiago said that the Constitution requires that even if the people’s initiative is upheld by the Supreme Court, there should still be a plebiscite, which has to be supported by a budgetary appropriation.

“Assuming that the plebiscite is held next year, then there should be an appropriation for it in the 2007 budget, which Congress is now debating. But there is no such provision, and the Senate will never approve it,” said Santiago, who is also vice-chair of the Senate finance committee.

Santiago said that after reading the “gushing, puerile, and unintelligent” press releases by people’s initiative advocates, she “could no longer hold my peace and started to boil over” and would have wanted to argue personally in the Supreme Court against the petition, but is prevented by illness.

The senator underwent endoscopy at the Philippine General Hospital last Monday, and is scheduled for a CAT scan this Friday, because of anorexia apparently caused by an ulcer.

Her staff said Santiago plans to attend Senate session on Monday next week.

-o0o-

Breaking News

25 September 2006

ROMULO PUSHED FOR ANNAN U.N. POST

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, said she recommended to President Arroyo the nomination of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo for United Nation secretary general, a post that will be vacated by Kofi Annan by December 31 this year.

“By tradition, in 2007 it becomes the turn of an Asian to be secretary general. So far, the Asian field of candidates is considered weak,” said Santiago, a former UN officer in Geneva.

Santiago said that although the Asian bloc of countries had initially committed itself to support the Thai candidate, the recent coup d’etat has made the Thai candidacy problematic.

“Straw votes are being conducted, with results that are not convincing to UN observers. If we are going to have an Asian secretary general at all, why not a Filipino?” Santiago said.

The senator said that it is essential for a candidate to have the support of both China and the United States.

“Sec. Romulo appears to be acceptable to both Beijing and Washington. I think in his case France will be willing to waive the French requirement that the nominee should be French speaking,” she said.

Santiago said President Arroyo was amenable to the Romulo nomination during the Friday meeting between the senator and the President in Malacañang.

“In fact, the ideal candidate would be President Arroyo herself, because the widespread call is for a first female secretary general. Being an incumbent president and chair of the ASEAN, she would be the most highly qualified among any female candidate. There is even no qualified female candidate at present,” Santiago said.

However, the senator added that President Arroyo did not appear interested, at which point Santiago recommended instead Sec. Romulo.

“President Arroyo said that if the idea is attractive to Sec. Romulo, then the Philippines could start a serious campaign. It is timely, because early birds in the nomination process are usually overtaken by a dark horse,” she said.

Santiago expressed the hope that other Filipinos who have floated their own candidacies but have not yet received formal support from President Arroyo, would instead unite behind the nomination of Sec. Romulo.

“After all, Romulo is the incumbent foreign affairs secretary, a former presidential executive secretary, and a former senator. Among Asian candidates, he would probably be the most acceptable to the permanent members of the Security Council,” Santiago said.

Santiago pointed to the example of outgoing UN secretary general Kofi Annan, a UN bureaucrat who rose through the ranks, and was not even considered a serious candidate until the last few weeks of the negotiations.

“It would be a great honor and a source of prestige for our country if a Filipino is elected secretary general. It is a position of global leadership,” Santiago said.

-o0o-