Miriam: Any idiot can win votes from idiots by Macon Ramos-Araneta | Mar. 22, 2014 at 12:01am DAYS after suggesting that the next President should be a woman, Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago said Friday any idiot can run for the office and poll enough votes from his “fellow idiots.” “We have seen all our senators and congressmen who are stupid,” said Santiago, speaking before the International Youth Leadership Conference in SM Aura in Taguig. “When you report them, they are angry. Situational leadership. The President should go to them and challenge each of them to a fistfight. You can’t just plead with them,” said Santiago. Given the kind of leaders that Filipinos have, she said, the question that confronts them is who should they vote for in 2016. Santiago said there is no correct answer, however. “We should have a President who can turn out to be the best president if he knows how to adjust ourselves,” she said. She also made fun of the country’s corrupt politicians, belting out classic corruption jokes and punch lines that drew laughter from the audience. In greeting the international delegates, she said: “Welcome to Metro Manila, the seat of government, glamor, bling and the seat of the most atrocious corruption you’ve ever seen.” “Let me ask you: do you know what is the result of the IQ exams of corrupt politicians? Answer: negative.” “One of these corrupt politicians went for a job interview and the recruitment manager said we’re looking for someone who is responsible. The applicant said, ‘I’m the man for the job. In my last job, when everything went wrong with the PDAF [Priority Development Assistance Fund] given to non-existent NGOs or the Department of Agriculture, they always said I was responsible.’” She even talked about the release of the bar exam results. “I heard one of the questions was: should Santa Claus be considered a criminal? Guess! The answer is yes. Santa Claus is liable for crime such as illegal surveillance, unfair labor practices, and animal abuse,” she said. “I have a pick-up line for aspiring leaders: Can I follow you home? Because my parents always told me to follow my dreams.” Because of corrupt politicians, Santiago said, she might be inclined to support Charter changes. If lawmakers insist on amending the Constitution, she said she would introduce amendments to prevent “idiots” from getting elected. “Candidates for president, vice president, senator and representative should be at least college graduates,” said Santiago, chairperson of the Senate committee on constitutional amendments. Under statute books, she said that even policemen are required to be college graduates under statute books while public officials follow a lower standard for election. While she also talked about the Crimean crisis and touched on the history of Kosovo, which experienced ethnic cleansing in the nineties, she related this to local leaders. Santiago said she also wants a cleansing in the Senate if only it were possible because they are really those who cannot be taught. “I was a professor of UP but I’ve never seen such a group so resistant to education as the Philippine Senate,” she said. Santiago said she is also dying to introduce an amendment in the Constitution so that the provision against dynasties should be self-enforcing instead of leaving it to Congress to pass a proper law. “Notice they never passed a law, notwithstanding that there is a commandment in the Constitution for them to do so,” she said. The anti-dynasty provisions of the Constitution have not been enforced because decades after the Charter was ratified, no enabling law has been passed. Santiago also said Charter change cannot be limited to just one area, such as the move in the House to amend only the economic provisions. She said any move to change the Constitution would open it up to other amendments. “My only caveat is once you decide to change the Constitution, you cannot by law limit the change or amendment of the Constitution to just one particular point. There are opinions of the Supreme Court ruling that once Congress makes the decision to open the Charter to change, it cannot limit what a constitutional convention or constituent assembly can do.” “You cannot say just limit it to economic provisions. That will go against the [rationale] for the decision] of these cases decided by the Supreme Court,” she added. She reiterated her objection to the argument that Charter change is needed to improve economic growth. She pointed out that other countries on the planet have achieved industrialization, the last stage of economic growth without allowing foreigners to control corporations or buy land. “You can do this by other means. All you have to do is study the experience of successful nations. It will depend on what economic provisions are being talked about,” she said. Santiago said she is against changing economic provisions for the sake of change. “We don’t need to experiment. The experiment has already been conducted. Other factors other than land ownership, corporation ownership seem to be the salient points for economic progress,” Santiago said. At the same time, she warned the country against extending official recognition to Crimea and said that if it’s necessary, we can simply have a working relationship with it. “If the Philippines extends recognition to Crimea, in effect the Philippines is saying that Crimea is entitled to a principle of customary international law, most importantly the principle of opinio juris,” said Santiago. The principle of opinion juris states that for a practice to become a rule of customary international law, it must be shown that nations believe that international law mandates the practice. It is not based on moral obligation. Santiago said she believes the country has not yet complied with the requirement of opinio juris. She said some states will simply recognize Crimea as a state within the orbit of Russia, but recognition by other states will not amount to recognition of a general right to independence by Crimea. She said that the Philippine government should decide whether to recognize the new independent state of Crimea by taking into account non-legal factors, such as diplomatic abilities, the ability to raise international support, the ability to influence the media, and even military power. “International law is neutral with respect to secession. International law neither prohibits nor promotes secession. The independence of Crimea will depend upon the acceptance of the international community,” the senator said. Santiago made her remarks at the International Youth Conference sponsored by the AIESEC, a French acronym that stands for the world’s largest youth-driven organization, representing some 124 countries and some 2,400 universities. A few days ago, Crimea held a referendum where 97 percent of the locals voted to leave Ukraine and to join Russia. The Ukraine government, with the support of the United States and the European Union, protested the referendum as a violation of international law. But Santiago, an international law author and former international law professor at the University of the Philippines, said that at this time there is no principle of customary international law which allows a right to secede from a state. “Crimea bases its claim on the right to internal self-determination. This is because the Crimea event does not yet constitute customary international law. We have to wait for international practice to develop in the future,” she said.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 08:09:01 +0000
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