Miriam Defensor Santiago wishes for 'Genie in a Bottle'

If a genie asked what Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago’s wish would be, she said it would be to stop the senators from conducting legislative investigations.

According to the rules of the Senate, its committees may conduct formal inquiries or investigations in aid of legislation or when they refer to the implementation, reexamination or formulation of any law.

However, senators should stop conducting these investigations because they actually do not result in any substantial legislation so they do not serve its constitutional purpose, Santiago said in a forum Friday at the University of the Philippines College of Law.

“When these senators conduct these so-called public hearings on television, they display ignorance of the rules of court. That should be a crime in itself,” the feisty Senator said.

Santiago lamented her colleagues are merely serving as “subordinates of fiscal,” during legislative inquiries.

The veteran senator pointed out that even at the end of the investigation, all they can possibly do is make a recommendation to the Office of the Ombudsman which she said is merely doing a preliminary work for a preliminary investigation of an ordinary fiscal.

“It has no weight in our judicial system. It has zero capability in judging what justice should be administered. We are acting, in effect, when we conduct these scandalous hearings, a fiesta of legal ignorance,” Santiago stressed.

The senator was particularly urged to end legislative investigations when she delivered a sponsorship speech before the Senate on the International Criminal Court (ICC) particularly the Rome Statute.

She recalled having to engage in debate and interpellation with senators whom she said are ignorant of the court rules.

Santiago to resign?

Santiago is a judicial candidate to the ICC for the term 2012-2021. The ICC is a permanent and independent court with jurisdiction over crimes of international concern such as genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression.

She earlier announced that if she wins the position in the ICC, she will resign as senator of the republic.

In August, the Philippines recently became the 117th of the 119 State Parties of the ICC from all the regions of the world. The treaty will come into force in November.

“Our membership in the ICC is nothing less than a signal contribution to the globalization of international justice because the Court is arguably the most important institutional innovation since the founding of the United Nations,” Santiago said in the forum sponsored by the UP Institute of International Legal Studies and the Philippine Coalition for the ICC.

The senator will leave next week to campaign her candidacy as judicial candidate for the elections in December in New York.

“We are opening a window into the future and the future suggests that after accession to the Rome Statute, the Philippines still needs to undertake wide-ranging tasks,” Santiago said.

She further recommended establishing a commission for experts to engage in a thorough professional study of emergent problems and approaches under Philippine law in relation to the Rome Statute.

By Shielo Mendoza