Out of order

By AMADO P. MACASAET
MALAYA

‘After Lacson denied that he is gay, can Sen. Santiago prove that he is lying? Tough job!’

Before she was elected senator, Miriam Defensor Santiago served with distinction as regional trial court judge for some years in Quezon City. She is best known to this day for the sharpness of her mind, especially on Constitutional law.

But like all geniuses, people can go ballistic when their ego is pricked. They seem to have forgotten their sterling record of service, in this case Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago as judge and lawmaker, a fighter and defender of freedom.

Her colleague, Sen. Panfilo Lacson, filed a complaint against her with the Office of the Ombudsman for alleged violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. The first instinct of a respondent is to defend himself with incontrovertible evidence and even up the score not too much later by filing a countersuit.

Even non-lawyers know this. Sadly, Senator Santiago, whose mother by the way was a good friend of my late mother-in-law (being co-teachers in a high school in Iloilo City) might have forgotten that instinct.

Instead of shaming Sen. Lacson by coming up with incontrovertible counter-evidence, she decided to attack his sexual orientation. If the lady senator were a judge presiding over a case, she would have immediately ruled this counterattack as out of order.

But Senator Santiago is witness and judge. So she went on warning Senator Lacson of dire consequences of his accusation, but by putting him on notice that his term is about to expire (when he loses immunity) and hers is still at least three years away (when she still has it).

The interpretation is that Senator Santiago could sue him after Senator Lacson loses his immunity when his term expires.

How does any of this sit with the accusation – filed with the Ombudsman – complaining against alleged involvement in graft and corruption? Out of order, a judge would surely say if Mrs. Defensor had made the statement in a courtroom.

But her immunity prevents anybody, including her accuser, from saying anything against irrelevant statements. Definitely, questioning the sexual orientation of Senator Lacson in open session as an obvious answer to the charges filed with the Ombudsman is abuse of parliamentary immunity against a peer and may lead people to believe that the lady lawmaker is hard put answering the charges filed against her.

Senator Lacson has records, presumably obtained from official sources, that the family of Senator Santiago has a building called Narson (is that from the name of her husband, Narciso Yap Santiago Jr.?) in Quezon City. This is the building where Mrs. Santiago rents space as a satellite office, according to records submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman.

The Senate pays for the rent of satellite offices of its members, Mrs. Santiago included. In the case of Mrs. Santiago, the Senate is paying the rent of the office in a building her family owns. Nothing really criminal about it. The Senate would have paid the same rent if Mrs. Santiago had decided to have a satellite office elsewhere.

The difference here is that Senator Santiago may be spending taxpayers’ money to benefit her family.

Paying herself or her family with taxpayers’ money does not seem right. She is said to have asked the Senate secretary if she could rent a space in the building of her family. She is said to have obtained the approval of the Senate secretary. Did she have to ask the Senate Secretary if she had doubts about renting a space in a building her family owns?

So, there is nothing wrong in Mrs. Santiago renting a space in the building of her family and having the Senate pay for it with taxpayers’ money?

Is the complaint of violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act an issue Senator Santiago must answer? Quite definitely. We have no information whether the lawmaker from Iloilo has submitted documents giving the lie to the charges filed by Lacson with the Office of the Ombudsman.

We presume she has not. We are of the opinion that Mrs. Santiago is diverting the issue to the more sensational matter of Lacson’s sexual orientation. The diversion makes good copy in media. But it does not answer the charges filed with the Ombudsman.

Senator Lacson has denied Mrs. Santiago’s charges that he is gay. Can she now prove that the lawmaker from Cavite is lying?

Will it ever occur to Mrs. Santiago to answer the complaints of Sen. Lacson? There are no indications she might or will. The Ombudsman is placed on a spot.

How will the Ombudsman, former SC Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales, resolve a complaint where the respondent does not seem to want to defend herself?

May the doctrine of admission of guilt by silence apply in this case?

I have stayed away from Mrs. Santiago out of respect for her as a lawmaker. Then came this point where I feel that people must know that hinting at the sexual orientation of anybody, particularly a colleague, does not serve public interest.

Public interest is not served either when a senator like Mrs. Santiago refuses to reply to the charges filed with the Ombudsman and instead goes into personal tirades that do not serve any public purpose at all.

The floor of the Senate is a forum for dissecting issues that serve public welfare. Its privilege of immunity should not be used to make personal accusations against a peer, not if the accusation cannot be proven with physical evidence, not if the accusation does not help the people do their duties to themselves and to the state.

Senator Santiago has no obligation to answer the charges on the Senate floor. She has to file her answer with the Ombudsman. Maybe she did. So why cast aspersions on the sexual orientation of Senator Lacson? After Lacson denied that he is gay, can Sen. Santigo prove that he is lying? Tough job!

Why has this country lost its esteem and dignity such that charges of alleged graft and corruption are answered by questioning the sexual orientation of the complainant?

I thought the Senator from Iloilo knows there has never been any sense mixing oranges with apples. She just did.

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email: amadomacasaet@yahoo.com