Miriam rejects bid to let Trillanes join Senate sessions

By Rolly T. Carandang
Tempo
December 16, 2008

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago strongly opposed a proposed Senate resolution amending the Senate rules by allowing detained Sen. Antonio Trillanes to participate in their sessions by teleconference or videoconference.

Santiago, who is currently on sick leave, said in her statement that she expects administration senators – including senators Joker Arroyo, Richard Gordon, Manuel Lapid, Ramon Revilla, Jr., and Juan Miguel Zubiri – to sign her dissent.

A resolution filed shortly after Trillanes won a Senate seat but revived yesterday is designed to allow the Magdalo leader to participate in Senate sessions by teleconference or video conference.

Santiago explained that the resolution might violate the equal protection clause of the Constitution as she stressed it might serve as a bad precedent for other persons in other circumstances to invoke right to participate by electronic means in collective decision-making.

Likewise, she believes the effect of the resolution would be to make the Senate a singular institution, distinguished from all institutions because the Senate alone would conduct its plenary sessions by electronic means.