Allegations of brutality and smuggling and tax evasion and illegal logging and corruption have been levelled at Senator Juan Ponce Enrile by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago. So now everyone has been particularly scathing about all these accusations. We seem to feel how foolish we are to entertain doubts, but these are heavy allegations and everything she has told in her speech can be regarded as a serious matter because though a lot say that the senator is insane, she is still high-minded and honourable: She has not been involved in the PDAF scam and all her advocacies are obviously reputable as she always takes a principled stand. She has been shown as an intelligent, courageous, and virtuous lawyer, judge, government official, and legislator. Consequently, for all her uprightness that she has shown since then, it is easy for us to consider her contentions in this era of rationality. And to judge from her productivity as a legislator, no insane woman can be as prolific as Senator Santiago has been.
As a senator, she has access to a lot of classified information. For one, there are some things that are highly classified and only circulated to a very limited group of people in this country. Thus, the role of the government is to order an investigation into all that she has said and is claiming. We can’t just turn a blind eye to what she is talking about. The government can prod her to collaborate with them as they inquire into the affairs of the people mentioned in her speech. This is yet another slur on the integrity of the people she has involved in the issue.
Miriam is Miriam. A straightforward woman, she is a political icon of millions of Filipinos, being a genuinely witty speaker to whom one could listen for hours. She talks over issues well-kept by fear and ignominy, so most of us find what she says entrancing and astounding. She speaks like a crazy woman, but it is her way to confront anathemas or propriety, which defences and precludes truth from coming out. She knows well how to tip-toe to the verge of lawful and unlawful, thoughtful and facetious, sympathetic and hostile, ceremonial and casual, and this necessitates finesse, so it makes no sense to belittle the enormity of the issues the senator is exposing. She is a super intelligent woman, but she is not a deranged woman - it is so obvious. Only a PR firm can say that to slate her or to enrage her or to make people not believe her to ruin her integrity. She knows what she is doing as she doesn’t go to absurd lengths. Her agenda is not discordant, nor are they out of time with everybody’s.
I think our country needs more Miriams. She dredges up everything that our memory as a country has expunged for years because we are forbearing, superficial, lenient, unaware, or fraidy-cat. She sounds unmannerly or coarse, but the silence of anyone in the senate is inimical to transparency and scruples and can be perfidious to the Filipino people. She is not our adversary here, for she is our defender. None of what she says and does is against us if we analyse all that she uncovers. All she told us during her privilege speech is a can of worms some people didn’t want to open, and doing so she knows the risk it poses to her life and her family. It could have appalled all of us, yet it made us realise a lot of things. It has spurred us into making an opinion or taking an action.
Silence in the Senate could be a conspiracy of silence. Santiago v Enrile considered as a cat-and-mouse game is politically expedient at best. It was revealing and has made the two senators more popular and unpopular, lovable and unlovable, good and bad. It gives everyone a fresh idea of what is happening in our country and what the government do to address the problems our politicians and some citizens are involved in. It also shows who are pursued by the government and who are not, who are implicated and who are passed over. As a legislator, she has no power to solve the problems confronting us all, but she can drop hints about what is happening in this country. It is up to the justice department to litigate. The justice department, however, could unsurprisingly political. It could be selective or spiteful or excessive.
We don’t know exactly what has incited her hatred to Senator Enrile. It could be purely political or personal – or theatrical. This is the thing we cannot be certain of. All we can do is speculate about it. It could be because of misunderstanding or because she really hates the crimes she is accusing Senator Enrile of or she is really a sincere public servant. Whatever it is, however, the Filipino people deserve truthful legislators and statesmen.
It is time that we got rid of bad politicians. We need legislators who don’t need a PDAF and who honestly legislate not for themselves and their family businesses but for all Filipinos and this country. We need politicians who advocate for the progress of everyone in this country, divulging everything in the government especially if it is anti-Filipino and deceitful, making effective laws that protect the welfare of the majority and making sure that all taxes go to tangible and useful government projects and investments. Accordingly, this country needs more squeaky clean people for the government to fight shy of sleaze and corruption and exploitation of the Filipino people and the environment.
Sad to say, we have a lot of potential legislators, but no one can follow in Senator Santiago’s footsteps, for to be like the senator, they need to understand all the laws in principle and intelligently, they need to be daring and fearless, and they need to be strong, principled politicians.
Passionately championing the Filipino people, the senator disdains politicians who are corrupt and thoroughly venal, and we are lucky to have her in the Senate. She is a trustworthy and no-nonsense leader, for even her jokes and anti-jokes have social and political ramifications for everyone. We can’t change her deportment and her general demeanour, for an institution herself, she is a woman of great personality. All we can do is love her or hate her or ignore her but never change her.
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