Press Release
September 29, 2016

Transcript of Sen. Grace Poe's call for a moment of silence for Sen. Miriam
At the FOI Hearing

I would like to ask that we take a moment of silence to pray for the soul of an esteemed and a respected, courageous colleague. A woman who had helped us in the past to also pass the Freedom of Information Bill. May we pray for Senator Santiago, she passed a few minutes ago.

So maybe I should also use this time to speak a little about her. As a junior senator, as a young, well not the youngest but one of the youngest in the chamber at that time and a new Senator, I was already defending the Freedom of Information Bill. It was the first bill that I defended on the floor and I was quite scared to be interpellated then by Senator Santiago. I remember having sleepless nights preparing for that particular time when she would actually interpellate me. So at that time when I was finally given that opportunity, what she said was, before interpellating she said, Senator Poe I feel very maternal towards you. And so instead of actually interpellating me, she lectured me on the importance of having a Freedom of Information Bill and I will never forget her for that.

She stressed that the Presidential communications privilege should not be abused by any sitting President and I think that's a valid point that we really took into consideration and so this bill is also dedicated to her and hopefully we pass it also in her memory.

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