Miriam Santiago ‘worthy of the fires of hell’ | Inquirer Global Nation

Miriam Santiago ‘worthy of the fires of hell’ | Inquirer Global Nation

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She may be untouchable in the impeachment court. But in the eyes of God, Senator-Judge Miriam Defensor-Santiago could be “worthy of the fires of hell.”

In a blunt admonition of the feisty lawmaker, Fr. Catalino Arevalo, spiritual adviser of the late President Corazon Aquino, said Santiago should issue a public apology for repeatedly berating the House prosecutors in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

“If you call anybody ‘you fool,’ you are worthy of the fires of hell. And she called them gago, which is Filipino for fool, before millions of people,” Arevalo said in his homily at the historic Our Lady of Edsa Shrine yesterday during the First Saturday Mass in honor of the Blessed Mother.

“I did not say that. Jesus said that,” said Arevalo, the octogenarian Jesuit who delivered the homily at Aquino’s funeral mass in 2009.

Arevalo based his message on the Gospel reading on Friday, Matthew 5:20: “But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment. And if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council. And if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the fires of hell.”

Arevalo did not mention Santiago by name in the homily. But later when asked if he was referring to Senator Santiago, Fr. Arevalo’s telling pause was clear. He did not have to name her.

“Well, that was before millions of people. So she is, in conscience, bound to make a formal apology before millions of people if God will forgive her,” Arevalo told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

“That’s the teaching of Jesus. You don’t do that, and if you do that, you have to retract it by making a formal apology before millions of people, otherwise you remain worthy of the fires of hell,” he stressed.

Mocking defiance

Known for her sharp tongue and fiery temper, Santiago once again lashed at the House prosecution panel on Wednesday over its supposed incompetence and poor grasp of procedures in the impeachment trial.

This time, however, she was finally met with mocking defiance from a private lawyer helping the panel, Vitaliano Aguirre, who was caught on camera covering his ears as Santiago went on for minutes berating his team.

When asked to explain, Aguirre admitted doing it on purpose to protest being called gago on national TV by the senator while shutting out her “shrill voice.” The lawyer later resigned from the panel after the court cited him for contempt.
Santiago’s tirades on Day 26 of the trial arose from the prosecution’s sudden decision to rest its case against Corona after withdrawing five of the eight articles of impeachment it had prepared against the Chief Justice.

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