[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’Miriam loses battle with lung cancer’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY PRINCE GOLEZ, Manila Reporter
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
MANILA – A known graft-buster “eating death threats for breakfast”, feisty Ilongga senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago lost her nearly three-year battle with cancer.
Santiago succumbed to lung cancer at age 71 yesterday morning.
“(She) died at 8:42 a.m.,” announced a post in her official Facebook page managed by her media handlers.
Santiago was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer in June 2014 and made a public announcement about it the following month.
A year later, the lady lawmaker claimed she defeated cancer with the help of what she called “magic” pills and announced she might run for president.
“She died peacefully in her sleep. That is all I want to remember,” said Santiago’s husband Narciso yesterday.
Before she died, Santiago was unconscious for several days at St. Luke’s Medical Center – Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, Metro Manila.
According to Narciso, these were Santiago’s last words before she slipped to unconsciousness: “I accept this. I do not want to do anything heroic.”
For the last time in May this year, Santiago joined the election for the country’s top post but finished last among five aspirants with only 1,415,876 votes. The race was won by President Rodrigo Duterte who garnered with 16 million votes.
Duterte treated Santiago kindly during their face-off in one of the presidential debates. Instead of engaging her in a debate, he asked her: “My question Ma’am, how are you today?”
“It is even an insult to the intellect of everybody to be asking a learned and experienced human being in this planet,” Duterte said in praising one of the country’s brilliant legal minds.
A smiling Santiago replied with an update about her health and this prompted Duterte to say: “Oh come on, you will live for a thousand years. No doubt about it. I rest my case.”
In the 1992 presidential election, Santiago nearly won, losing by only 870,000 votes to Fidel Ramos.
She ran again in 1998 but placed seventh out of 10 presidential wannabes. Joseph Estrada won the poll.
“Cheer up, people! Ganyan lang talaga ang buhay. The night is darkest just before the sun rises,” Santiago posted in her Facebook page after her third attempt for president.
Santiago’s remains were transferred to the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Cubao, Quezon City yesterday for the wake. The family had no plans to cremate her, said Narciso.
“Details of the interment will be announced later. We ask for prayers as her family goes through this difficult time,” read a post on the former senator’s Facebook page.
It was unclear as of this writing if Santiago’s remains would be transported to Iloilo City. She was born in the city’s La Paz district.
According to Narciso, Santiago had enrolled in various clinical trials for treatment of lung cancer for two years, but to no avail.
In the last trial, Miriam had three infusions before she became unconscious, he said.
Santiago, who was named one of “The 100 Most Powerful Women in the World” by The Australian magazine, served as senator from 1995 to 2001 (first term), 2004 to 2010 (second term) and 2010 to 2016 (third and final term).
A former judge at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, she started her career in public service in 1988 as Commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation where she was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize, for effectively battling corruption in the bureau.
Santiago was elected judge of the prestigious International Criminal Court in 2011 but almost three years later, she stepped down from the post she never assumed due to health reasons. (With a report from the Philippine News Agency/PN)
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
