Miriam vows to block Soliman’s confirmation

MANILA, Philippines - Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago has vowed to block the confirmation of Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Soliman in today’s hearing of the Commission on Appointments (CA).

In a letter sent yesterday to Abono party-list Rep. Conrado Estrella III, chairman of the CA committee on labor, employment and social welfare, Santiago said she would invoke Section 20 of the rules of the CA.

Under Section 20 of the CA rules, any member may move for the suspension of action by the commission on any nomination without any explanation.

“This is to respectfully notify that I intend to invoke the CA Rules, Section 20, to suspend the consideration of any nomination for DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman. The practice is that when Section 20 is invoked, it is non-debatable,” Santiago said in her letter.

The senator had voiced her opposition to Soliman’s appointment during her confirmation hearing in December 2011.

At that hearing, Santiago lambasted Soliman for her involvement in the Black and White Movement, a civil society organization that came out in 2005 shortly after members of the Cabinet of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo resigned and called for her ouster.

She said she found it objectionable that the Black and White Movement believed that they are the only ones who have a clear definition of what is good and evil.

“In a previous hearing of the Commission on Appointments, I accused Ms. Soliman and her ilk of Manichaeism, an obsolete attitude based on the supposed primeval conflict between light and darkness, where the most vocal proclaim themselves to be the personification of light and their victim as the personification of darkness. These people are dangerous,” she said.

Santiago said she had opposed Soliman’s nomination from the start of the Aquino administration.

“Ms. Soliman was a fervent devotee of President Arroyo. All of a sudden, on her way to Emmaus, she heard a voice telling her that President Arroyo is allegedly corrupt,” she said.

“Conveniently, she then turned her back on her erstwhile patron and ran to the other side of the street to join President Aquino’s daang matuwid. In the first place, she should be satisfied with one term under one president. In the second place, she should not retain her public office on the strength of her denunciations of her first boss,” she added.

Santiago said her sources from Malacañang have informed her about how Soliman and some others have “felt free to denounce my integrity.”

She recalled that during the impeachment trial of former President Joseph Estrada, she voted against the opening of the second envelope, which she said was used by “Soliman and her ilk” as proof that she was pro-Estrada and corrupt.

“Eventually, the second envelope was opened and the glee concert failed to emit a peep when it turned out that they were wrong, because there was nothing incriminatory in the second envelope,” she said.

Santiago said she would show up at the Senate today in spite of her extended medical leave to invoke the Section 20 rule against Soliman.

The sworn oppositions against Justice Secretary Leila de Lima of whistle-blowers’ organization head Sandra Cam, former Siquijor congressman Orlando Fua and Ma. Virginia Libunao, a former immigration officer, would be presented in today’s hearing.