"x x x.
Bullying and posturing, she spoke with arrogance; mercilessly heckling her peers and haranguing ordinary witnesses. She seemed to relish her loss of emotional control. Her rant made an already offensive voice even more grating, with an atrocious accent that thickened speech in either English or Filipino.
The Senate allowed her every courtesy. But she did not seem to appreciate this, and at every turn displayed how bereft she was of the sense of dignity required by the occasion and office. Her only concern was to be herself. And what a sad and pathetic self that was.
Why do we let her get away with it? Why do media continue to favor her with slavish coverage?
A flash back might help how this has come to pass. I still remember a younger Miriam Defensor Santiago, an RTC (Regional Trial Court) judge before she was appointed in 1988 by President Corazon Aquino to the Bureau of Immigration. There she won popular approval, awards, and more recognition for her efforts to clean up an agency long tainted by corruption and bribery. During her stint in that office, the process of application became orderly, with less opportunity for pay-offs made by fixers to officers, or at least, it was not on display.
She already had this terrible accent then, and it seemed to get worse, the more she was interviewed and asked to speak on public occasions. It seemed she broadened her vowels more, lengthening these in what might been an attempt to speak English like one born to the language. She was obviously bright and witty. She was quick with the quip, smart, and squelching in repartee. The lawyer and civil servant became media’s darling.
Why not? Media in search of a quick story found in her an always ready statement and sound bite. She made it easy for a reporter to write one’s quota for the day. And wherever she went, a coterie of fans and journalists would be around, the latter insistent on baiting her to say something that they could turn into that “she said” story of the day.
Soon enough, the news grapevine would share more than just the subject’s cheap contrivance for media attention. One also heard of planes being held to wait for her and her insisting that those inviting her to speak guarantee a full house of no less than 200. But the media have been easy on the not-so-gentle lady from Iloilo, giving her only the kindest of media’s soft treatment.
As she has gotten older, the quick wittedness has slipped to brash insult, the scold her natural default. Her expressions of displeasure began to sound trite and tired, with no other purpose except to vent. Losing self-restraint, she speaks, arms flailing, face grimacing, shooting questions to reduce a target to shame. She recalls the sad caricature of the screaming Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, who shrieked for the execution of some offending lower life.
Do we deserve this?
x x x."
