Who is she?
Miriam Defensor Santiago is a three-term Philippine senator who, in March 2012, was elected as a judge representing Asian countries on the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Miriam Defensor Santiago of the Philippines. Source: Coalition for the ICC’s flickr photostream, used under a creative commons license.
Santiago previously served as secretary of agrarian reform from 1989 to 1991. Most notably, her tenure as commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation in 1988 earned her a Ramon Magsaysay Award, considered the Asian Nobel Peace Prize, for her “bold and moral leadership” in combating graft in the agency. Santiago received her law training from some of the world’s finest institutions, including Berkeley, Cambridge, Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford.
Why is she in the news?
Santiago has long been a vocal critic of the Philippines’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), often called “pork barrel” spending. In July 2013, she filed a resolution in the Senate calling for the gradual abolition of the fund by 2016.
On September 17, Santiago asked to postpone the assumption of her ICC position in order to speak out against the PDAF in Congress. Santiago has publicly accused members of Congress of protecting Janet-Lim Napoles, the alleged mastermind behind a scam involving misuse of the PDAF by lawmakers.
What can we expect from her?
Expect Santiago to spearhead the anti-corruption fight in the Philippine Congress and table progressive legislation between now and January 2014 when she is scheduled to take up her ICC post.
In a sign of thing to come, Santiago has filed a Senate bill that would provide free medicine and services to those in need through local health centers. It is her response to lawmakers’ claims that they cannot help constituents without the pork barrel fund.
Santiago also filed the Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom (MCPIF) as her first bill in the new Congress. It seeks to protect free speech and personal privacy online, while repealing the controversial Cybercrime Prevention Act that has been held up by the Supreme Court since last year.
