Miriam files bill to hold public officials liable for past offenses despite reelection


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If you betray public trust, you must face the consequences.

“Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago has filed Senate Bill 2716, which seeks to amend Republic Act No. 3019, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, by making an elective official liable for any violation of the Anti-Graft Act although the violation was committed during a prior term and although the official was reelected,” reports Amita O. Legaspi on GMA News Online.

The report noted: “In her explanatory note, Santiago said those who betray public trust by being dishonest, inefficient, and corrupt fail to meet the stringent standards found in the Constitution and must be removed.”

Santiago stated, “The simple act of reelection alone cannot be taken to condone an elective official’s previous illegal acts since to do so would run counter to the State’s duty to maintain honesty and integrity in public office, and to keep officers accountable to the public. It also collides with the character of public office as a public trust.”

The report explained that “Santiago filed Senate Bill 2716 following the claim by the camp of embattled Makati Mayor Junjun Binay that he should not be prosecuted over the alleged overpricing of the Makati City Hall Building II project because the alleged anomaly occurred during his previous term of office.”

Santiago had commented, ““That is a cross-eyed simplification of the problem. The first qualification for a public office should be honesty or integrity. It is wrong to equate the reelection of a public official to condonation of his past criminal offenses.”

The report pointed out that Binay, son of Vice President Jejomar Binay, “is facing a six-month preventive suspension ordered by the Ombudsman over graft and plunder complaints allegedly committed when he was still a councilor of Makati City.”

As the report also indicated the younger Binay’s lawyers “cited the 1959 Supreme Court decision in Pascual v. Provincial Board of Nueva Ecija, which supposedly prohibited the court from disciplining an elective official for a wrongful act committed during his immediately preceding term of office.”

Santiago found the reference “disturbing,” saying, “The result would be ludicrous. Any public official will feel free to commit any crime, including plunder, and thus winning reelection, if it automatically means that his previous crimes are condoned.”

Photo: Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago’s Facebook page



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