Santiago: ‘Please kick Purisima upstairs so he’ll leave PNP alone’

MANILA, Philippines — “President Aquino, please kick Purisima upstairs so that he will leave the PNP alone,” was Senator Miriam Defensor- Santiago’s appeal on Friday for the beleaguered Philippine National Director General Alan Purisima.

Speaking before the annual national convention of the Philippine Association of Real Estate Boards at the Bellevue Hotel in Alabang, Santiago talked about the corruption allegations hurled at Purisma in a speech dubbed as “The Curious Case of the PNP Chief.”

“Mr. Purisima has no definse except that his alleged political enemies are exaggerating his unexplained wealth. Exaggerated or not, the question is: Where did he source all the wealth?” the senator asked.

“I have to be impressed with the defense made by Mr. Purisima. I have never before met someone who seems to have such a small mind inside such a big head. I watched him fleetingly on TV while he tried to brazen off his defense against what appears to be the facts,” she said.

As a trial judge, Santiago said she was trained to study what the law calls “the demeanour of the witness.” And judging from Purisima’s demeanour when he faced a Senate hearing, she said she had to wonder whether the PNP chief “works that hard to be a jerk, or whether it just comes naturally.”

“Today, after that televised hearing, people say he is a perfect jerk, I tell them that he is not perfect, but he is doing all right,” she said.

But since Purisima refuses to take a leave of absence and could not be placed on preventive suspension until a case is filed at the Office of the Ombudsman, Santiago then said the President should consider appointing him as member of the National Police Commission or as assistant secretary of either the Department of Interior and Local Government or the Department of National Defense or to some other position which is “incompatible with his present office as PNP chief.

“That’s the best way, under the circumstances, to get rid of a suspicious character,” she said.

The senator cited a classic authority on the subject of incompatible office in a book written by Floyd Mechem, who said that any person “who while occupying one office, accepts another incompatible with the first, ipso facto, absolutely vacates the first office and his title is thereby terminated without any other act or proceeding.”

“The rule means that another office is incompatible when the nature and duties of the two offices are such as to render it improper, from considerations of public policy, for one person to retain both offices. For example, two incompatible offices are judge and clerk of the same court; claimant and auditor; landlord and tenant,” Santiago explained.

“In other words, President Aquino, please kick Purisima upstairs so that he will leave the PNP alone,” she added.

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