When Sen. Miriam D. Santiago resorts to name calling to make a point, most of us laugh. We’re tickled by the colorful but vile language that only a lawyer from UP with a peculiar sanity can deliver. And surprisingly, she is tolerated by her colleagues whom she disparagingly labels as “idiots.”
For all her self-proclaimed erudition, Santiago harbored frustration after being trashed in her bid to be a jurist in the International Court of justice (ICJ,) a position she actively campaigned for. The emotionally volatile lady senator dared the then Pres. Joseph Estrada who was a school drop-out for an IQ test match to push forward her mental superiority. Her bizarre mouth-blabbering cowed the people around her. She called members of the legislature as “fungus faced.” The lady threatened to jump from a plane only to say later she was just joking.
When party list representative Risa Hontiveros disagreed with Santiago against the court-like conduct of senate inquiries using “rules of evidence,” the gas bag allegedly referred to Hontiveros as a “menopausal insect who was out to get publicity and wanted to teach the senate.”
Such nasty words are unlikely to come from a supposedly educated lawmaker. That’s why people don’t think of her as reliable, sincere, and sane. Many squirm with shame at her vile comments which frustrate productive exchange of ideas. Instead of being direct on issues and coherrent in her thoughts, Santiago resorts to reckless talk which is unbecoming of a person in her position. =0=
Ibalon 