WHY I AM OUT OF THE LOOP

By Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago

I have decided to join the new majority, because it still partly consists of the administration bloc to which I belong. I have been absent and silent so far, because I am sick of diarrhea, which could be due to intestinal flu or my old amoebiasis.

I was clueless about the Senate coup. In my entire Senate career, the plotters never consulted me beforehand. Either I don’t count, or I am considered unapproachable.

Thus, when Sen. Enrile called me several times on the Sunday before the coup, I had no clue that he wished me to sign the coup resolution. I had intestinal flu, was in bed, and had requested my husband to field all my phone calls. To say that I was avoiding him is a misimpression. I do not avoid; I confront.

Immediately after the coup, Sen. Mar Roxas very kindly and gallantly invited me to join the majority. I had reservations, because I was ill and just could not deal with the unexpected development. But he was indefatigable on my behalf, and I thank him profusely.

In a jocular way, I was in a dilemma. At the start of this Congress, the Senate administration bloc allied itself with a sector of the opposition, to become part of the majority. At that time, administration senators were accused of sleeping with the enemy. Now, the administration bloc has again allied itself, but this time with a different sector of the opposition, to form the new majority. Hence, it might seem to critics that the administration bloc to which I belong has become a serial adulterer.

I caught a bad cold in New York , and brought it with me to Manila . Instead of resting, I immediately plunged into my Senate duties. Hence, at the Dela Paz hearing shown on TV, I had to stop presiding and leave, because of exhaustion from my deteriorating cold. I even cancelled at the last minute my scheduled trip to Peru with President Arroyo.

On the weekend prior to the coup, in addition to my cold, I succumbed to diarrhea. On my doctor’s advice, I took a course of antibiotics. But then I developed dizziness. And paradoxically, today when I had planned to report to the Senate, I find that my diarrhea has returned.

It is not true that I “demanded” certain committees. I had read that Sen. Enrile was calling for senators to express their committee preferences, and I complied with a brief letter. It is not true that I am feigning illness. My family physicians are Dr. Esperanza Cabral and her daughter Dr. Sandy Cabral Prodigalidad.

It is unfair and malicious to impute these and any other kind of negative actuations to me. I assure my critics that if I were not bedridden, I would educate them physically.

JPEPA SIDE ACCORD OK’D

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, released the exchange of notes between foreign affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo and Japanese foreign affairs Minister Masahiko Koumoura concluded last week.

“In international law, an exchange of notes constitutes a treaty, binding on the parties and implying performance in good faith. This exchange of notes will in effect constitute an integral part of the treaty,” she said.

Santiago said that every senator has been given a copy of the exchange of notes on Philippine constitutional provisions, in order that the senators could take the exchange into due consideration when they vote on the Jpepa.

“The exchange means that areas of investment activities reserved by the Constitution to Filipinos will remain reserved, and will not be opened to Japanese investors,” she said.

Santiago said the exchange confirms that Jpepa will not result in a violation or amendment of any nationalistic provision, notably “the ownership of lands of public domain and exploration, development, and utilization of all waters, minerals, coal, petroleum oils, all sources of potential energy, fisheries, forests or timber, wildlife, flora and fauna, and other natural resources.”

Santiago said Jpepa will respect the reservation to Filipinos only of all “preferential rights, privileges, and concessions granted to qualified Filipinos covering the national economy and patrimony.”

“For example, the Japanese cannot lease or own alienable public lands. Neither can they own and transfer private lands,” she said.

Santiago said that the exchange of notes prohibits the Japanese from operating any public utility, practicing any profession, or owning mass media or advertising corporations.

Other fields that the Constitution reserves exclusively to Filipinos concern health and educational institutions.

Jpepa will not amend any existing law protecting Filipinos from unfair foreign competition, regulating foreign investments, promoting preferential use of Filipino labor and domestic materials, or regulating the transfer of technology.

Santiago also said that the exchange of notes emphasizes the Jpepa provision that the treaty may be amended by agreement between the parties, in order to allow for future Philippine laws that might not conform to Jpepa, but are intended to enforce the nationalistic constitutional provisions.

“This exchange of notes is of course considered binding between the Philippines and Japan , and will be respected as an integral part of Jpepa,” she said.

Santiago said that under the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, an exchange of notes is binding, when it is established that the states agreed that the exchange should have that effect.

“Thus, the constitutional issues raised by the treaty have now been resolved,” she said.

In the Senate, Jpepa is at present undergoing the process of interpellation on trade issues, handled by Sen. Mar Roxas.

After the trade issues are discussed, interpellation will proceed on the constitutional and legal issues, to be handled by Sen. Santiago.

After the period of interpellation is closed, three days later, voting on the treaty will be held.

The Constitution requires concurrence by two-thirds vote of the Senate, for the treaty to be considered ratified.

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TRANSCRIPT OF SENATE MEDIA INTERVIEW WITH SEN. MIRIAM DEFENSOR SANTIAGO

26 November 2007

On the conflict of interest in the Transco sale

The crux here is that the president of the government agency which is in charge of selling the National Transmission Corporation (Transco), a billion-peso company, is suffering from a prohibited conflict of interest, in the sense that he is an officer of several corporations owned by one of the part owners of a bidder for the government agency. But we must put this charge in context. That is the reason why I, as chair of the Senate panel, and Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo, as chair of the House panel, of the Joint Congressional Power Commission, which has the power of
control and supervision over the sale of these electric power assets of the government, are first
asking these government officials to explain if they have violated the law. There is a violation of law when the person who is supposed to sign or approve the contract is himself, or through a board, group, or a panel of the government, might have a financial, material, or pecuniary interest [in the contract]. In this case, the allegation is that the president of PSALM, a government agency, was a former member of the board of directors of several companies owned by Mr. Enrique Razon, who is part owner of a company which is one of the qualified bidders. So there is a defense on the part of Mr. Ibazeta if he can show that pursuant to law he divested himself of any interest in the Razon corporations, then there is no violation of law. The fact that he used to be an officer of any of those corporations does not make it illegal if after his appointment he resigned from the position or he sold his shares of stock within the period provided by law, 30 days for resignation and 60 days for divestment of interest.

Furthermore, we have to put it into context that the complaint is being filed by disgruntled bidders who did not make it in the cut. When there’s a public bidding, there is a prequalification process. You weed out those who are qualified and those who are not. And these two objectors, who belong to the failed bidders, are not exactly strangers to the power game in Manila. One is the brother of a congressman, Mr. Zamora. The other one, Mr. Ocampo, used to be a public official. Although there is no presumption of innocence in this case because the law expressly provides that there is a presumption of prohibited interest, the person is given a chance to prove that there is no such conflict because he either resigned or he divested himself. We have to wait for his reply in the name of fairness and justice before we make any serious charges. Senators Pimentel and Madrigal are expressing concern over the alleged conflict of interest. This is what has prompted the JCPC, of which I am co-chair, to require the written explanation from Mr. Ibazeta.

On the schedule of the JCPC hearing on the Transco sale

Now we are entering budget week. Under Senate rules, we cannot hold committee or any other hearing when Session is in order. Since we have sessions morning and afternoon, we are prohibited from holding public hearings this week. The budget hearings may even be extended next week. I have to go from December 1 to 7 to Europe as part of the delegation for the President’s state visit there. The earliest we can set the hearing [on the Transco sale] is on December 13. We shall then be anticipating the presence of two public officials who are now in the hot seat. The first one is Finance Secretary Teves, as chair of the privatization council which approved the sale of the Energy Development Corporation without notice to the JCPC. The Epira law provides that to privatize our government corporation in this particular case, we should sell the generating plants packaged to the steam sales agreement. That this methodology prescribed by the law. Now we hear that the privatization council has approved of the sale by a means other than that provided by law. We had asked Secretary Teves to make an urgent appearance and give an explanation. The second one is Mr. Ibazeta because of the charge of conflict of interest. There are two hot officials who will have to come to the Senate on December 13.

The bidding is on December 12. It will not necessarily be the declared a failure just because there might be conflict of interest on the part of the president of PSALM. Assuming for the sake of argument that that is the case, the bidding will not necessarily result to a failed bid. Remember that we in the JCPC are very anxious that this bidding procedure should now be concluded because in the past we spent a lot of time going over three bidding processes, all of which were declared failures, mostly for the reason that there was only one successful pre-qualified bidder. Pursuant to the philosophy of Epira, which is to sell all assets concerning the power industry to private owners, we want to sell at a good market price the Transco. But we want to make sure that the sale is pursuant to the Epira.

On Sen. Mar Roxas’ election as president of the Liberal Party

It is no secret that Sen. Roxas was elected president of the Liberal Party today in anticipation of his presidential candidacy as official standard-bearer of LP for 2010. By Wednesday, his major rival in the presidency as of the moment, Senate President Manny Villar, is also holding his own show of power, to mark the 100th anniversary of the Nacionalista Party, which is the oldest political party in our country, also in anticipation of his own presidential candidacy. For a while there it looks like a Villar-Roxas race. But now, former President Estrada tour within Metro Manila, where he is reportedly getting crowds of the masses, has prompted media titillation with his public entertainment of the possibility that he might run for president. Then it might become a three-cornered fight. In that case, all bets will be off. It will be three multibillionaires fighting each other and all the rest will have the capacity of ants in the presence of three elephants.

On Sen. Loren Legarda and Vice President Noli de Castro running for President in 2010

They are ants. (Laughter.) When the elephants sneeze, the ants will catch pneumonia. Because it is now a given that you cannot run for president unless you have at least P1 billion, and your chances increase in multiples of tens of billions. The surveys will not count for very much apart from the usual cynicism among the public about the accuracy of those surveys.

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Transcript of today’s press interview with Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago

27 September 2007

On the possible impeachment of Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos

Impeachment is not strictly a legal or judicial process. It is part judicial and part political. That (impeachment of Abalos) would depend on whether they can raise the numbers in the House of Representatives. Well, there is already a ground because under the Constitution, an impeachment proceeding can be initiated on the ground that there is betrayal of public trust and that there has been culpable violation of the Constitution.

On her statements at yesterday’s ZTE hearing
I will never denigrate the Chinese because I married one. My husband is a Yap, his mother was Chinese. I’ve always been a great admirer of Chinese civilization. I made a trip to China when I was not a public official to see their historical monuments and imbibe their culture.

We were talking about a Chinese contract. My point was if you are a public official and there’s a pending government project with you, to socialize with any of the parties of the contract is very suspicious.

Tomorrow, I will write a letter to the Chinese ambassador.

On the JPEPA

If this were a boxing match, this is already round three of the JPEPA. I already gave the first two rounds to those against the JPEPA. Today, I still give round three to those opposed to the JPEPA. They were presenting the cases of other countries in Southeast Asia which also have economic partnership agreements or EPAs with Japan. Not only that, but they also presented empirical evidence, meaning to say, the experience of these other countries which have EPAs with Japan, showing that there is serious danger that there might be importation of hazardous wastes into our country, notwithstanding our domestic laws on toxic wastes and on ecological management. What we wanted the administration to do was to refute the empirical evidence and not just talk theoretically. Theory is far removed from reality. Again, the administration was unprepared. They didn’t even have prepared statements. We were only treated to what in effect were speculations that it will not happen. What we need in our Senate hearings is actual evidence in actual histories of countries that have EPAs with Japan.

I’m afraid we only have two more hearings left. So far, those opposed to the JPEPA has already won the majority of the rounds, three out of five. I’m afraid that this agreement may not even muster a majority vote in my committee, much less a majority vote in the Senate itself. It will be my obligation as committee chair to defend this treaty. Right now, I am not receiving enough solid arguments that will enable me to persuade the Opposition who are in the majority of the Senate. If I cannot defend this treaty, it would get rejected in the Senate floor. So I would request advice from my colleagues if we even still need to file a committee report. Of course, under the Senate rules, we must file a committee report, whether for or against. But we can just not submit a report, meaning to say, the report will be negative. I’m afraid I would have to take a straw vote first among the committee members. A number of them have approached me during the course of the hearings to tell me that they are not convinced. Certainly, I will not go against the express sentiments of the committee members because I will be outvoted in the plenary session anyway. The power of the committee chair is vast, but it is also limited.

We prefer to just not submit a report. We can say that the Senate committee on foreign relations is not submitting a report although it has already concluded its hearings. That is a diplomatic way of saying that we recommend that the treaty be rejected.

In today’s hearing, even an administration official expressed doubts as to whether they should endorse the treaty at all. Senator Roxas has privately expressed skepticism over the treaty, even though he was originally a supporter of the treaty.

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