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DEFENSOR-SANTIAGO
(A.C. No. 7399, August 25, 2009)
PETITIONER
Petitioner Antero Pobre made aware to the court the contents of
Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiagos speech delivered on the
senate floor. The following excerpts are the ones in question:
x x x I am not angry. I am irate. I am foaming in the mouth. I
am homicidal. I am suicidal. I am humiliated, debased,
degraded. And I am not only that, I feel like throwing up to be
living my middle years in a country of this nature. I am
nauseated. I spit on the face of Chief Justice Artemio
Panganiban and his cohorts in the Supreme Court, I am no
longer interested in the position [of Chief Justice] if I was to be
surrounded by idiots. I would rather be in another environment
but not in the Supreme Court of idiots x x x.
According to Pobre, the words of the lady senator were
disrespectful and requested that the latter be disbarred or be
subjected to disciplinary action.
RESPONDENT
Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago argued that the statements
she made were covered by the constitutional provision on
parliamentary immunity, being part of a speech she delivered in
the discharge of her duty as member of Congress or its
committee. She claims to have made those comments to expose
anomalies with regard to the selection process of the Judicial
Bar Council for the next Chief Justice.