MANILA – The Judicial Bar Council, a group that recommends to the President a list of potential Supreme Court justices, recently scrapped Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago from the list.
This angered her. She took the floor of the Senate to denounce retiring Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban, former Sen. Jovito Salonga and Justice secretary Raul Gonzales as the “masterminds” behind the removal of her name.
She lashed out against these persons on
the Senate floor, calling her antagonists names that included also some members
of the JBC.
Miriam, along with other potential
candidates, have opted to waive a public interview of applicants for the post.
Not only did she insult the members of
the JBC and the Supreme Court; she vowed to cut or block its budget for next
year when it comes before the Senate.
She said she will move to have its
funding reverted to the 2005 level and slash the more than P700 million Special
Judiciary fund to a mere P100 the JBC which in effect would abolish the
council.
Santiago, displaying her emotional
outburst, made known to her critics that she will not take the matter sitting
down.
This outburst came about at the close of
the JBC’s proceedings, with only the names of four magistrates submitted to the
President, namely Senior Associate Justice Reynato S. Puno, Leonardo
Quisumbing, Consuelo Ynares-Santiago and Angelina Sandoval-Guttierez.
Santiago, in her outburst said, “I am not
angry, Mr. President. I’m not angry. I am irate! I am furious! I am foaming at
the mouth! I am hitting the roof! I am homicidal! I am suicidal! I am
ballistic! I’m insulted!
I’m humiliated! I am abased! I am
degraded!
“And not only that. I feel like throwing
up, to be living my middle years in a country of this nature. I am nauseated. I
spit in the face of Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban and his cohorts in the
SC!"
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