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Revision as of 18:15, 12 June 2008

Miriam Defensor Santiago
Senator of the Philippines
Incumbent
Assumed office
2004
Senator of the Philippines
In office
1995–2001
Secretary of Agrarian Reform
In office
1989–1991
Commissioner of Immigration and Deportation
In office
1988–1989
Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge
In office
1983–1987
Personal details
Born (1945-06-15) June 15, 1945 (age 79)
Iloilo City, Philippines
Diedsmall
Resting placesmall
Political partyPeople's Reform Party (1992-present)
SpousesNarciso Y. Santiago, Jr.
Parent
  • small
ResidencesQuezon City
OccupationLawyer
ProfessionLaw

Miriam Palma Defensor Santiago (born June 15 1945) is a Filipina politician, Constitutional Law expert, and a Senator of the Philippines. She is popularly known as Miriam. She is the founder and current leader of the People's Reform Party as well as its former presidential candidate.

Early life and education

Santiago was born in Iloilo City, Iloilo to District Judge Benjamin A. Defensor and Dimpna Palma Defensor. In her youth, she was an accomplished student, graduating as class valedictorian in both elementary and high school levels.[1]

Despite a three-month bout with illness, Santiago graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of the Philippines in 1965. She finished it in only three and a half instead of four years. Upon graduation, she was elected to the prestigious Pi Gamma Mu and Phi Kappa Phi international honor societies.[1]

She was the first female editor-in-chief of the university's student newspaper, The Philippine Collegian, in its fifty-year history. She was twice made Corps Sponsor of the Reserve Officer Training Corps.[2]

An accomplished debater, Santiago has participated in numerous oratorical, public speaking, and debate contests in high school, college, and law school.

She earned a Bachelor of Laws, cum laude, from the University of the Philippines College of Law in Diliman in 1969. Her classmates include former Senate President Franklin Drilon, San Juan Representative Ronaldo Zamora, and Eli Pamatong. Miriam took the 1969 Bar Exams and passed.[3][4] Her classmates Zamora and Drilon were first and third respectively, getting high grades, eventually landing in top law firms. On the other hand, Santiago decided to teach Political Science instead to undergraduates at Trinity College of Quezon City.[3]

She then attended the University of Michigan Law School from 1974 to 1976, earning degrees in Master of Laws and Doctor of Juridical Science.[3]

Santiago continued enrolling in short courses, attending seminars and participating in conferences locally and abroad. In 1995, at the age of fifty, she completed the academic requirements for a Master of Arts in Religious Studies at the Maryhill School of Theology with an average grade of 1.25.[5] In 1996, at the age of fifty-one, she attended the Summer Program of Instruction for Lawyers at Harvard Law School. In 1997, at age fifty-two, she attended the Summer Program in Law at Oxford University.

When she lost in the Senate race of 2001, she worked on updating her law and political science textbooks, which were last released 2002.[6]

In 1986, Santiago was recognized as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Professionals of the Philippine Junior Chamber of Commerce. In 1988, she was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the local equivalent of the Nobel Prize.[7]

In 1996, The Australian Magazine ranked Santiago 69th among "The 100 Most Powerful Women in the World", sharing the honor with former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos who ranked 58th.[8]

Private career

Santiago was a professor of political science in Trinity College of Quezon City from 1971 to 1974 and concurrently Special Assistant to the Secretary of Justice from 1970 to 1980. She was also a member of the Board of Censors for Motion Pictures from 1977 to 1979. She served as a legal officer of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva, Switzerland from 1979 to 1980. She was also a legal consultant of the Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C. in 1982. She was appointed as a Regional Trial Court Judge from 1983 to 1987. She taught Law at the University of the Philippines from 1976 to 1988.[3] From 1992 to 1995 and from 2001 to 2004, she has lectured at the University of Santo Tomas, De La Salle University, Colegio de San Juan de Letran, and the University of Perpetual Help.[9] De La Salle Professional Schools was rumored to have invited Miriam to teach in its Master of Business Administration-Juris Doctor dual degree program.[10]

Political life

Santiago was appointed by President Corazon Aquino as Commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation in 1988. She served in that capacity until 1989. She was Secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform from 1989 to 1991.

After President Corazon Aquino declared her intention not to seek another term in the 1992 elections, Santiago ran for president, seeking Aquino's endorsement. She founded the People's Reform Party as her vehicle. She invited Ramon Magsaysay, Jr. to be her running mate. The party did not have any other candidates at the national level and endorsed only local candidates Alfredo Lim and Lito Atienza for the position of mayor and vice mayor of Manila. Aquino decided instead to back her then-Defense Secretary Fidel V. Ramos in his bid for the presidency.

Following a string of power outages, the tabulation concluded and Ramos was declared the winner. Santiago filed a protest before the Supreme Court acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, claiming massive electoral fraud and citing the power outages as evidence. Her protest was eventually dismissed.

Santiago ran for the Senate of the Philippines in 1995 elections, again as a candidate of her own People's Reform Party. She became a senator from 1995 to May 11 2001. As a Senator, Santiago became a vocal critic of the Ramos Administration.

Santiago again ran for president in the 1998 elections and invited fellow Senator Francisco Tatad to be her running mate. Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino candidate Joseph Estrada won the election and became president, though Santiago again made claims of election fraud. After the election, Santiago returned to the Senate.

On January 13 2001, Santiago and ten other senators voted against the opening of a bank envelope. The vote ended the impeachment trial and led to the Second People Power Revolution which removed Estrada from office. Santiago ran for reelection in the 2001 elections following the Estrada's removal, but was not re-elected.

It was at this point in her career that tragedy struck her personal life. Her favorite son, AR, an aspiring law student, took his life. In the 2004 elections, Santiago ran again for senator, this time switching to the President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's K4 coalition and won. She currently holds the position of chairperson and lone member of the People's Reform Party. Her office in West Triangle, Quezon City offers a library of her written books.

Santiago announced her intentions to apply as one of the possible candidates to fill the post of Supreme Court Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban upon his retirement in December 2006. Ultimately, the Judicial and Bar Council removed Santiago from the shortlist of candidates for the position.[11] The Supreme Court gave her zero votes, while the Judicial and Bar Council, gave her only one vote. She went ballistic then and called the SC members as "idiots."[12] Santiago further questioned the qualifications of Panganiban and labeled the Supreme Court an "old boy's club" for not admitting outsiders into their fold.[13] The shortlisting came after all the nominees, save for Santiago, boycotted a public interview held by the Judicial Bar Council that aimed to improve the institution's transparency.[14]

On July 10, 2007, Santiago said that an acquittal of ousted President Estrada will consequently cast doubts on the legitimacy of President Arroyo’s assumption into office. She advised that only a conviction will be to the best interest of Mrs. Arroyo: “If President Estrada is acquitted now, we will have a dilemma: What then is the status of President Arroyo? Two, if he is acquitted, the conclusion can only be that there was no plunder and therefore there was no basis to remove him from office. What then is the basis of President Arroyo in the elections (in 2004) that followed after she was installed (in 2001)? That in itself will create another legal dilemma,”.[15] Further, Santiago accused some winning senators of having ‘paid their way to office’ (P200 million is the non-negotiable minimum amount to carry out a senatorial electoral campaign “which is simply unethical”). Studies made by some independent research groups yielded the names of Santiago’s fellow majority bloc members, Senators Joker Arroyo, Edgardo Angara and Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. as among the so-called top spenders in the last elections.[16]

On July 30, 2007, President Arroyo has nominated Santiago to the International Court of Justice. Asia was entitled to a seat upon the expiration of Jordan’s term in 2009. Following the principle of geographical balance, membership of the court is distributed among the principal global regions thus: three in Africa, two in Latin America, three in Asia, five from Western Europe (including United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand), and two in Eastern Europe (including Russia).[1]

ABS-CBN reported that the Philippine government on May, 2008 had been facing "an uphill battle in pushing Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s candidacy in the International Court of Justice. First, some countries are moving to oppose her. Second, domestically, some quarters in the legal community have raised concerns because she has not qualified for the highest court in the country. She is also handicapped by her recent gaffes in the Senate." For her ICJ bid, Santiago failed to get the Supreme Court endorsement but was only, formally nominated by a national group formed for the international campaign. She needs an absolute majority votes from the UN General Assembly and the Security Council which will vote separately, before winning the seat.[17] Santiago, however, denounced the report stating that the Lopez family attempted to blackmail her because she is a strong advocate of reduced power rates.

The senator was recommended by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo by a nominating committee composed of a current and a retired Supreme Court associate justice, the president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and a law school dean.

According to Santiago, the article’s claim that Japan and China were moving to oppose her was “purely baseless conjecture”. She said that ambassadors of both countries were hoping for positive instructions from their respective ministers on the matter. [18]

Santiago, a former editor-in-chief of the Philippine collegian and columnist for several newspapers, asserted that she could recognize a negative spin when she sees it. [19]

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales said that Santiago’s credentials “is equal to any associate justice in the Supreme Court and […] also for the ICJ.” [20]

The website editor, however, denies Miriam’s allegations.

Personal life

Santiago is married to Narciso Yap Santiago Jr., her former classmate at the University of the Philippines. Narsing, as he is known to many,[21] was once an undersecretary for Interior and Local Governments, and is currently a presidential adviser for revenue enhancement. He is also a businessman.

The Santiagos have two biological children, Narciso III and Alexander Robert (AR), who committed suicide at the age of 22 on November 20 2003. Miriam has adopted two girls, Megan and Molly, born in 1996 and asked then President Joseph Estrada to stand as their godfather.

Santiago's brother, Benjamin Jr., is a retired general who served as Philippine Air Force commander and Armed Forces Chief of Staff. He is currently an ambassador-at-large for counter-terrorism. Two of her cousins are congressmen. Matias Defensor represents the third district of Quezon City, where Santiago resides, and Arthur Defensor represents the third district of Iloilo, Santiago's hometown. Santiago's nephew, Michael Defensor, is a former presidential chief of staff who ran and lost in a Senate seat in the 2007 elections.

References

  1. ^ a b Official Biography at http://miriam.com.ph/resume1.html last accessed May 14 2007.
  2. ^ Official Biography at http://miriam.com.ph/resume1 last accessed May 14 2007.
  3. ^ a b c d "Presidential Profiles: Miriam Defensor Santiago." Probe Team Documentaries. GMA-7. March–April 1998. Cite error: The named reference "profiles" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ Official Records of the Supreme Court Bar Examinations Committee, Office of the Bar Confidant, Supreme Court of the Philippines, 1969.
  5. ^ Official Biography at http://miriam.com.ph/resume1 last accessed May 14 2007.
  6. ^ Official Publications List, Central Book Store, 2002.
  7. ^ Biography of Miriam Defensor Santiago, The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation. Retrieved December 7 2006.
  8. ^ http:// wisdom.psinet.au/~lani/100mpw.html
  9. ^ Actual university tours by Dr. Miriam Defensor Santiago from 2001 to 2004.
  10. ^ Interview with members of Faculty and Staff, De La Salle Professional Schools, May 2003.
  11. ^ Shortlist of candidates announced, ABS-CBN Interactive. Retrieved December 7 2006.
  12. ^ www.abs-cbnnews, RP faces tough challenge in ICJ campaign for Santiago
  13. ^ Labog-Javellana, Juliet, Santiago slams JBC, SC after being dropped from shortlist, Inquirer, December 4 2006. Retrieved December 7 2006.
  14. ^ Nocum, Armand and Labog-Javellana, Juliet, Senator Santiago waives Supreme Court ‘job interview’, Inquirer, November 30 2006. Retrieved December 7 2006.
  15. ^ Rosales, Angie M., Miriam: Erap conviction for GMA’s political good, The Daily Tribune, July 11 2007. Retrieved July 11 2007.
  16. ^ Rosales, Angie M., Some winning senators ‘paid their way to office’ — Miriam, The Daily Tribune, July 11 2007. Retrieved July 11 2007.
  17. ^ www.abs-cbnnews, RP faces tough challenge in ICJ campaign for Santiago
  18. ^ Miriam cries 'blackmail': She says enemies using ABS-CBN to hit back at her
  19. ^ Miriam cries 'blackmail': She says enemies using ABS-CBN to hit back at her
  20. ^ [http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/may/27/yehey/metro/20080527met4.html Gonzales rallies for Santiago’s ICJ bid]
  21. ^ "The Miriam Defensor Santiago Story." Maalaala Mo Kaya (Do You Remember). ABS-CBN 2. December 2003.

Published works

  • Santiago, Miriam D. (2002). Constitutional Law Annotated. Central Law Book Publishing.
  • Santiago, Miriam D. (2002). International Relations. Central Law Book Publishing.
  • Santiago, Miriam D. (2002). Politics and Governance. Central Law Book Publishing.
  • Santiago, Miriam D. (1994). The Miriam Defensor Santiago Dictionary. Narsan Publishing.
  • Santiago, Miriam D. (1993). The Politics of Reform in the Philippines. Narsan Publishing.
  • Santiago, Miriam D. (1991). Inventing Myself. Narsan Publishing.
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