Former Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, known as the “iron lady of Asia” died Thursday morning after a two-year battle with lung cancer. She was 71 years old. According to reports, Santiago died peacefully in her sleep at 8:51 Thursday morning at the St. Luke’s Hospital in Quezon City.
Santiago ran but lost in the May 9 presidential elections. She entered the presidential derby despite being diagnosed as having stage 4 lung cancer.
With her death, the country has lost one of its most intellectually gifted brilliant political leaders the Philippines has ever produced. She was known in the Senate as a tough fiscalizer with a zero tolerance against corruption.
The feisty former Senator from Iloilo was not only known for her wit and intelligence, but also for her sharp tongue that has rebuked corrupt and inefficient government officials .
Santiago was elected senator in 1995. She served three terms in the Senate. She retired from politics after her term ended last June 30.
Senator Santiago gained worldwide attention after being elected in 2012 as the first Asian from a developing country to be elected in the United. Nations (UN) as judge of the International Criminal Courts (ICC). However, many believed that her deteriorating cancer ailment made her relinquish voluntarily the prestige of being an ICC judge. The ICC hears cases against heads of state.
Santiago was one of the few politicians that I know who served in all three branches of the Philippine government – judicial, executive and legislative.
In her longs years in government service and as a lawmaker, Santiago received numerous awards and recognition for her relentless fight against corruption in government.
She became a symbol for incorruptibility, honest government service and constitutional law.
In 1988, she was the recipient of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for government service with a citation “bold and moral leadership in cleaning up a graft ridden government agency.”
Fed up with corruption in government and the deteriorating peace and order situation, Santiago ran in the 1992 presidential elections but was defeated by former Defense Secretary Fidel Ramos.
Up to this day, Santiago’s die-hard political supporters, including myself, still believe that the former senator won in the election, but lost in the counting done by the Comelec and Congress. Who knows what kind of president Santiago would have been if ever she got elected as chief executive of the Philippines?
But I am sure that she would have been much better than Cory Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Gloria Arroyo and Noynoy Aquino, not only in terms of intellectual capability but in honesty and integrity as well.
After so many years of having imbecile, corrupt and non performing presidents who got elected through the manipulation of a corrupt Comelec, we now have President Duterte who promised to do what needs to be done to improve the country’s economy as well as in addressing the proliferation of illegal drugs throughout the country.
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Embattled Senator and suspected drug lords coddler Leila de Lima has all the reasons to be hysterical nowadays. It was also reported that she is close to having a nervous breakdown. I think she would, eventually, if Congress will allow the showing of her sex video scandal in the possession of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre.
Aguirre must have been irked by De Lima’s remark that all the charges being leveled against her were all faked just like the hair of the current justice secretary which is a wig.
If House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez will have his way, the video will be shown in public for the people to judge the authenticity of their sex video. Alvarez was quoted in the newspaper as having said that he has no problem showing publicly the sex video to help the government determine if Senator De Lima had a personal relationship with Ronnie Dayan, her personal driver/bodyguard.
The public, who I’m sure are all eager to watch the sex video of the lady senator, may have to wait a little longer since the Senate is trying to dissuade house leaders from showing the tapes publicly. Senator Franklin Drilon, a staunch De Lima ally, has asked for inter-parliamentary courtesy and proposed that leaders of both chambers of Congress meet to discuss the matter. I hope it will all be just a discussion and no video watching. Just saying…