Senator Santiago is no turncoat

We thank the Inquirer for the observation that Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago has always extended her support to all incumbent presidents, except one. As a senior senator, she believes public officials—regardless of party lines—should support any sitting president in pursuit of good governance and national unity.

While Christian Esguerra’s article (“Look who’s talking: Senator Santiago wants to ban ‘turncoatism’,” Inquirer, 6/24/11) used the definition of “political turncoatism” in the senator’s bill as a “change of political party affiliation during an elective public officer’s term of office,” he failed to mention that Senator Santiago always runs for office as the official candidate of the People’s Reform Party, of which she is the president and founder. It is therefore unfair and misleading to charge the senator with turncoatism since she never left her party. Also, she was only invited by major political parties to be their guest candidate in their senatorial lineup as a show of support for her platform.

By filing the Anti-Political Turncoatism Bill, Senator Santiago hopes to help establish a party system in our country, where the voters will have a clear choice between competing ideologies. We do not have such a system at present, and the senator fully appreciates the public support that the bill will garner after being featured in your newspaper.

—TOM M. TOLIBAS,

public affairs and media relations officer,

Office of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago,

[email protected]