Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago vows not to run for president again--at least for the 2016 elections.
After giving a lecture at the Far Eastern University on Thursday, Santiago declined proposals from student leaders for her to join the presidential race in 2016.
“(I am) not interested in running for president,” Santiago told around 1,000 students who asked her to run for president with Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as her running mate.
“After winning the elections for new judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC), I am bound to report for work at The Netherlands to assume office,” she explained.
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Santiago was elected as a judge in ICC after receiving 79 out of 104
valid votes during the 10th session of the Assembly of States Parties in
New York on December 2011.
In March, the feisty lady senator
failed to take oath as the first Asian from a developing country to sit
as a judge in the international court due to hypertension and pressing
roles in the Senate.
Santiago told students she want to work for
nine years in international law so she may be able to practice what she
learned in University of Michigan, where she earned a doctorate on
juridical science.
Her media relations officer Tom Tolibas
confirmed she is willing to resign from her post as a member of the
Upper House even before her term ends in 2016.
“As of now, we
have not yet received any word as to when she can assume post. We have
to wait until there is a new case for her to handle (in ICC),” Tolibas
explained.
The ICC is an independent international body and is
the first permanent international court that decides on crimes against
humanity.
However, Santiago advised students to look out for
various distortions in choosing candidates for the upcoming senatorial
elections.
She explained the lack of education among voters and
candidates actually distorts the so-called voter participation in
elections.
"Elections are distorted because under our system, the
successful candidate might be the choice of only a minority,” Santiago
said.
“This was what happened when the people and I were robbed
of the presidency in 1992. The person who claimed that he won the
presidential election was only a plurality president," she noted.
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Santiago
also identified the control of political parties of choosing which
candidates to field before the electorate as another distortion.
Santiago ran but lost to former President Fidel Ramos in the 1992 national elections.
