Press Release
November 12, 2008

Transcript of interview with Senator Miriam Santiago

On De la Paz's arrest warrant. Was De la Paz evasive?

Not necessarily because he did not know when the arrest warrant would be served to him, so it's regular human behavior to seek comfort from his relatives in the province. But he would really be saving himself a lot of grief if he would surrender himself voluntarily, if not, then he will have to be treated as a detainee. If he does not surrender voluntarily, contrary to news, which has excited all of the Senate media, then it would have been excitement for nothing, we'll have to punish him by postponing the date of the hearing. The later the date of the hearing, the longer he stays in detention. If I'm feeling mean-spirited, or if the media urges me to do so, I can set the hearing one month from now so he'll be in detention for one whole month.

If he appears tomorrow then the hearing will pursue on Saturday--Saturday because I have to give three day notice. In addition, we have subpoenaed a number of police officials who have been directly involved with the Moscow incident, and others who have financial accountability in the PNP and who would normally possess these kinds of papers. Not anymore Puno and Verzosa because they will stand by what their fact finding team said. But we will ask the secretary of foreign affairs or his representative to bring all the documents that the Philippine ambassador to Russia may have sent. Notice that we didn't know about the 45,000 euros when it was already sent to the DFA. And we shall ask if there's any other money perhaps in the check-in luggage or in the carry-on luggage that has not been discovered or reported by the Moscow authorities.

How about the businessman who allegedly ask De la Paz to buy him a watch?

Yes, we are subpoenaing him. There are two groups of resource persons. One are those to whom we normally extend subpoenas are government officials except those who are witnesses in these proceedings. And those who will have to be issued subpoenas that person who reportedly requested for a favor by giving cash to buy an extremely expensive wristwatch. That person must be a Midas because he is buying a wristwatch that we've never heard of and is worth tons of money. So we have to subpoena this person.

Has the camp of De la Paz sent "feelers" to the Senate?

No, normally he would surrender to the Senate President because the important signature there is that of the Senate President.

If he appears on Friday, will the hearing push through on Saturday?

It will push through as scheduled on Saturday. Since he would not have appeared at that time hypothetically, we can issue an alias warrant of arrest and now we will have a manhunt wherever he might be. Today, we're just going by the word of the lawyer. If he surrenders voluntarily today or tomorrow, my suggestion to the Senate president if I am asked is, like in trial court, we should release him on the recognizance of his lawyer, to say, we will not allow him to post bail because it is very expensive, but we shall release him with the promise of the lawyer to produce him, if not then the lawyer will be cited for contempt.

The manhunt begins when he does not appear by Saturday or before that if the sergeant-of-arms gives me the return of the search warrant, which is what corrupt policeman do, which says "is not available" or "address unknown" or "cannot be found" then that will be proof that he is evading a lawful process of the Senate.

On De la Paz' letter to Commissioner Libanan

Yes, just as what lawyers say, ex abundante cautela, out of an abundance of caution, just to make sure that he does not escape by any of our normal air or sea ports or by swimming.

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