News Release

MIRIAM: ANOTHER SC JUSTICE BEHIND SMEAR?

“I am not related to Justice Santiago, but I’ve personally known her since our UP college days. She’s impeccably honest, and a very religious widow who keeps to herself. She’s being pressured to inhibit herself in this case,” she said.

Santiago said that she suspects another Supreme Court justice, who used to belong to a big law firm, could be part of an orchestrated media plot to bring the female justice into disgrace, and compel her to inhibit herself from writing the decision.

“As a former RTC judge, I denounce the brazen campaign to make Justice Santiago look as if she was being offered a bribe. The story violates all known rules of evidence,” the senator said.
Santiago said it was “offensively ridiculous” that the bribe money of P10 million in a box would be brought to the Supreme Court office of the female justice.

The senator also pointed out that Daisy Cecilia Deles, a judicial staff officer, has already executed an affidavit denying that she was aware of any bribery attempt involving her former boss.
“This is a scenario out of thin air. The alleged eyewitness has already executed an affidavit that she did not witness any such thing. She recently resigned to avail of her retirement benefits, but that was sometime ago,” the senator said.

“It is plain diabolic to spin a routine staff retirement into a completely fictitious tale of alleged bribery. They are desperate, because Justice Santiago is known in legal circles to be as immovable as a rock,” the senator said.

Santiago warned that if the plot to discredit the female justice succeeds, then no public official will be immune from character assassination.

“I hope media keeps its head on this gossip. If it is given undue publicity, then any honest public official can be brought down by any criminal mob, just by sending a box of peso bills to the office, and paying off certain media practitioners to peddle the story. If they go far enough, I will call for a Senate probe into the actuations of those media practitioners,” she said.

The senator said that her strong sentiments on the alleged character assassination of the female justice were shared by the members of the UP WILOCI (Women Lawyers Circle), particularly Atty. Katrina Legarda, and by civil society, particularly civic leader Maribel Ongpin.
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