Miriam Santiago may be RP first woman chief justice

[Monseratto]

and heeere's Brenda.....

By Juliet Labog-Javellana
Inquirer News Service

IF SHE GETS IT, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago would be the Philippines' first woman chief justice of the Supreme Court.

The administration senator yesterday confirmed to the Inquirer that she was in the running to replace Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., who's retiring next month.

"The truth is the President (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) and I talked about it but I haven't made up my mind," Santiago told the Inquirer.

Another senator first told the Inquirer that Santiago was "interested" in the position.

But Santiago said the Young Lawyers Association of the Philippines asked for her permission to nominate her and she gave her consent.

"It would be immodest of me to turn it down flat," she said, saying she was willing to have her name passed upon by the Judicial and Bar Council.

Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan, a member of the JBC which recommends nominees to the President, is reportedly planning to ask for an extension of the deadline for nominations to the high court to accommodate Santiago's nomination.

But Santiago said that when the President called her up, she told her: "I'm interested, but not now."

She said she was more inclined to consider the position toward the end of her six-year term in 2010.

Santiago said that being only 60 years old, she would have to sit in the high court for the next 10 years, or until she turns 70, the mandatory retirement age for justices of the court.

In that case, she said the chief justice position would be a "dead-end job" for her.

"Of course, I find it attractive but I just cannot see myself sitting as chief justice ... sitting in isolation, surrounded by books. I'll be bored out of my skull," said the outspoken senator.

Obstacle

Santiago said she was also concerned about her moral obligation to the voters who elected her to the Senate as well as the opportunity for an incumbent associate justice to become the chief justice.

"I don't want to serve as an obstacle for the professional rewards that are due the other justices," she said, adding that younger associate justices who have been in the high court a long time expect to at least be given the chance to be appointed to the top.

Santiago said other presidents in the past had offered her the position but she had consistently declined it.

Santiago said there was no obstacle to the appointment of an outsider like herself as chief justice of the Supreme Court.

Second term

Now on her second term as a senator, Santiago is a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Law and served as a regional trial court judge in Quezon City. She served as agrarian reform secretary and commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration and nearly won the presidential election in 1992.

[qman]

if she gets it good for her

[rsnald]

if she gets it good for her

and bad for the country... we have a pathological liar as a president... and a lunatic as a chief justice... what next?

[Bogeyman]

Omiged! Miriam as chief justice?!

Oh well, nobody can deny that she's one smart cookie (sometimes short of a few crumbs).

[yebo]

matino naman siya...












basta hindi bilog ang buwan they will just have to make sure she does not pen any decisions during full moons and new moons nyahahahaha! manic-depressive schizoprhenic siya di ba? pag naka-high or naka-low siya dapat bakasyon muna siya ehehehe!

[1D4LV]

ok lang yun. being sa CJ does not mean she can dictate everything the SC decides into. botohan pa rin yan, and she is just another number there.

the only thing she can do (on her own initiative there), is yung administrative and policies ng SC..

[theveed]

OMG listening to her voice for hours will be a nightmare sa mga kasama nya hehehhe

[BlueBimmer]

hehehe high entertainment value naman si miriam e, i find her interviews highly amusing :bwahaha:

[niky]

Oh God... she's a certifiable manic depressive, with an ego the size of Palawan... I hope she works herself into a stroke before she gets that post...

[OTEP]

Oh no...