Transcript of Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago's Interview
31 January 2007
On the appointment of Solicitor General Eduardo Nachura as associate justice of the Supreme Court:
It’s natural. There has been many precedence in the past, and he is qualified and competent. He is an outsider, so in effect, the President is serving notice that she does not feel bound by the “insider rule” that both the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals would like to insist upon. There is no basis for the so-called “insider rule.” Gusto nila kapag may bakante, manggagaling lamang sa kanila. Nachura, as you know is an outsider. He is not, for example, a justice of the Court of Appeals.
On the appointment of Atty. Agnes Devanadera as new Solicitor General:
This means that her scope of jurisdiction will be expanded from civil cases to criminal cases, and, particularly, constitutional cases. So she assumes much more responsibility, because her expertise is limited only to corporate or administrative law. She will now have to assume greater responsibility because she has to have knowledge of criminal procedure, plus constitutional law.
(My advise to Atty. Devanadera is to) read my books, because they are updated. Since many of the members of the legal profession in our country are still going by rote, and they have not realized that jurisprudence is moving so fast. The case law is so high even for the appellate courts, that much of the jurisprudence has changed since they have been in college. -o0o-