The Hypocrisy of Miriam

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago is quoted in the Inquirer today saying 

“The COA report said that this action was a violation of the constitutional provision that no public money should be appropriated, directly or indirectly, for the use of any church,” said Santiago, chairperson of the Senate constitutional amendments committee.

“Under the Constitution, the power of the COA is to audit government funds, not to settle questions of constitutional law. The power is granted only to the Supreme Court,” she said.

She said the COA, instead of declaring the donations to the bishops as unconstitutional, should have instead recommended that the constitutional issue be raised in the Department of Justice, the official legal adviser of the executive branch of the government.

Yet with a simple google search, we find her declaring several bills and actions unconstitutional.

In her blog she writes this

"If the House of Representatives passes the Nograles resolution by mere majority vote, then it will be unconstitutional. We are not allowed to conflate an ordinary bill with a charter change resolution. There is simply no correspondence between the two measures."

and this

"Last week, she released an opinion that it might be unconstitutional for the Senate to detain former agriculture secretary Jocelyn Bolante for the fertilizer fund scam, leading the Senate to release him."

 GMA News quotes her saying

Santiago said the bill is unconstitutional because it violates Article 2 Section 12 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution which says that the state shall "equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception."

 and the TUCP quotes her saying

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago branded as unconstitutional and discriminatory a bill seeking to ban women from working for at least 11 consecutive hours during the night....Santiago said the bill would violate Article II Section 14 of the Constitution, which states: “The State recognizes the role of women in nation-building, and shall ensure the fundamental equality before the law of women and men.”

So apparently, only blowhard senators are allowed to declare things unconstitutional.