If there is one person any government official, past or present, would be loathe to tangle with in a running word war or a no-holds-barred public debate, that person can only be Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago.
A good example is Bayani Fernando, chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA). He has been getting quite a drubbing from the outspoken lady senator, yet he has not said a word in his own defense. Fernando is obviously petrified at the prospect of mixing it up with her, whose razor-sharp tongue and acerbic wit are legendary.
Government officials are wary of her because they know that apart from her outstanding credentials as a lawyer and fearless character, she has a unique gift that has endeared her to the public through the years. That gift is her mastery of the sound byte; the talent to tersely sum up situations or conditions in colorful, hilarious terms that the media always love to quote.
Time and again she has demonstrated the uncanny ability to spot and mock pomposity, hypocrisy or wrongdoing. This is why she sort of terrorizes those in government who are up to no good. So as not to arouse her ire and become a target of her tirades, they try to blend with the scenery, like potential prey low in the food chain trying to elude a predator. But woe unto any bureaucrat whose spoor she catches.
Take the case of Fernando. The former Marikina mayor, as you know, entertains the notion that he is ready to run for the country's highest office next year. In fact, he has all but formally begun campaigning.
In December last year, during the public hearings in the Senate on the national budget for 2009, Senator Santiago proposed to slash the MMDA budget by more than P13 million. Her reason: Fernando would only be using the money to further his early-bird campaign for the presidency.
She minced no words when she told Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile of her suspicion that the House-approved budgetary increase for the MMDA would only be put to illegal use by Fernando in pursuit of his political ambition.
She cited the expensive all-weather posters that Fernando has been putting up all over Metro Manila. (Undeterred, Fernando proceeded to put up those posters throughout the country anyway).
"Mr. Fernando is engaged in an unlawful premature campaign, and it is highly likely that he might use the funds of the MMDA," she told Enrile.
She also found it odd that the proposed MMDA outlay for "maintenance, operating and other expenses" was increased by the House to P1.552 billion despite the fact that President Arroyo herself had asked for only P1.539 billion.
"I am not convinced that there are valid reasons for the increase," she said.
In subsequent interviews by the media on this issue, Senator Santiago expressed dismay over the way Fernando has been doing his job as MMDA chairman.
"The MMDA is not easing traffic in Metro Manila.... It is merely transferring chokepoints from one place to another. It is not beautifying Metro Manila. Instead, it is merely painting conspicuous roadside houses with the colors pink and blue, which are Mr. Fernando's signature colors."
The latest broadside fired by the feisty lady senator against Fernando concerns the P330-billion economic-stimulus package requested by the Arroyo administration to enable the country to cope with the negative effects of the raging global recession.
Senator Santiago's comment: "I am definitely against spending any part of the P330 billion to create artificial jobs, for example sweeping streets or buying overpriced uniforms or brooms. This is a very fertile source of graft. There is already a red light flashing on and off. I read that the MMDA chairman has already started hiring more street sweepers. That is the worst kind of economic stimulus you can think of.
"He is going to use that for electioneering. And I warn that person that if these uniforms are going to be pink and blue, I am going to send him , to jail personally."
Senator Santiago said she fully understood what the economic-stimulus package was for. "Most governments in the world are making these stimulus packages, so there is nothing unusual, much less anomalous. However, the devil is in the details. We have P330 billion to spend for creating jobs so that more money would go to the people and will circulate in the economy, and in that way we can offset the expected adverse consequences of the recession.
"As chair of the Committee on Economic Affairs, I prefer that the P330 billion., .be spent on agricultural productivity, namely, on such infrastructure projects as the building of small-scale irrigation systems or of, farm-to-market roads—more or less permanent improvements— that can be availed of by the people."
What is readily apparent from those comments is that Santiago is now watching MMDA expenditures with eagle eyes. So Fernando better watch his step.
The temperamental lady senator has told the world that Fernando is" up to no good, engaged as he is, "in an unlawful premature campaign." But why is it that we are not at all surprised that we haven't heard as much as a whimper or a peep from the egocentric, ati-atihan-dancing chairman! of the MMDA?
Fernando is obviously scared of Senator Santiago. He seems to have sense enough not to talk back when she is scolding him like a misbehaving brat.
The Metro Manila public has long been dissatisfied with the way Fernando has been conducting his business in Metro Manila. He has only worsened traffic instead of easing it by cluttering the national roads with his confounded iron railings and other; wacky schemes. It is, therefore, fortunate to have an ally and a champion in. Miriam Defensor Santiago, who gives. voice to its deepest reservations about' the MMDA under Fernando.
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