Cyberwarriors vow to block Miriam’s bid for international court post

Organizers of the Pinoy protest website, www.elagda.com, have served notice they will oppose Senator-Judge Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s bid for a seat at the 14-member International Court of Justice (ICJ) based in The Hague, The Netherlands.

Vicente "Enteng" Romano III, the information technology consultant who originally put up the website to gather electronic petition letters asking President Estrada to resign from office, began urging 105,379 members to flood the international tribunal with e-mails opposing Santiago’s nomination.

"I understand that Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago of the Republic of the Philippines has been nominated by our government to the position of judge in the International Court of Justice," said a copy of an e-mail message Romano sent to the body’s e-mail address at [email protected].

"It might interest you to know that she is one of the senator-judges in the ongoing impeachment trial of Philippine President Joseph Estrada. Her performance in this trial might help you evaluate her suitability to the position of judge in your honorable court."

The letter referred the ICJ to on-line articles from local newspapers, which wrote about Santiago’s behavior as a senator-judge in the trial.

The articles include an episode of the impeachment trial when Santiago launched a verbal tirade against three people in the gallery for allegedly looking at her in an alleged provocative manner.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has officially endorsed the senator’s nomination to the ICJ but officials are worried she might not have enough time to campaign because of her role in the ongoing impeachment trial.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Lauro Baja Jr. said over the weekend that the ICJ has moved the schedule of elections to the tribunal to a date before May. Because of this, the DFA will have to change its campaign tack for the senator’s bid for a seat in the international court.
Nevertheless, Baja said Santiago has a chance to win a seat in the ICJ, brushing off criticisms leveled against the senator for her antics at the trial as "inconsequential."

"That (temper) does not affect her candidacy," he said. "The senator has impeccable credentials for the job. She was chosen by the DFA based on her personal qualifications."

But Romano, who conceived of the website as a pioneer effort to use the Internet in articulating voices of dissent in Philippine society, decided to direct the campaign against Santiago, after seeing her explode in what he said was yet another round of "demented outbursts at the impeachment trial."

Romano asked the website’s members to write "personalized" letters to the UN tribunal, which was created in 1993 to prosecute persons responsible for various violations of international humanitarian law and genocide in war-torn countries like Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

"I suggest you also (copyfunish) Miriam so she knows that we are doing something about her ballistics," he said in his e-mail to the website members, whom he calls the eMandirigma, or cyberwarriors.

The website had earlier bombarded senators with e-mails to vote according to their conscience.

Last Dec. 13, Romano’s "elagda campaign" was highlighted by an international day of protest, with rallies simultaneously held in various locations in the Philippines and abroad.

Members abroad picketed Philippine consulates while those based in Metro Manila proceeded to the Senate to demand that the senators render a guilty verdict in the President’s impeachment trial.