QUEZON City, Philippines (October 5) – A single word will surely not be enough to describe the late Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago. She has been tagged as the Platinum Lady, The Incorruptible lady, The Dragon Lady, but what she is most popular of is being the Iron Lady of Asia. These titles were given to her because of her undeniable academic and professional excellence.
It is public knowledge that Senator Santiago was a class valedictorian from elementary to high school. It was in 1965, when she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, Magna Cum Laude from the University of the Philippines – Visayas with an excellent 1.0 GPA. After graduation, she continued her studies at the University of the Philippines in Diliman where she took up Bachelor of Laws, which she finished with flying colors. She also made history when she became the first female editor-in-chief of The Philippine Collegian, the most popular student newspaper in the said university.
The soaring academic achievements of the late senator didn’t stop there. She also went to Oxford and Harvard law summer schools; to Cambridge and The Hague Academy of International Law in The Netherlands. All of which are for her postdoctoral degree.
Being a very knowledgeable individual certainly helped Senator Santiago. She is one of the few who managed to serve in all of the three branches of our government – judicial, executive, and legislative. She was appointed by former President Ferdinand Marcos as a judge at the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City. She was then appointed as the Immigration Commissioner during the time of President Corazon Aquino. Furthermore, she was also promoted as a member of President Aquino’s cabinet as the Secretary of Agrarian Reform. She also served as a senator for three terms, first was on 1995-2001, then on 2004-2010, her last term was on 2010-2016.
The colorful political life of Senator Santiago didn’t stop there. She ran for presidency thrice, first was on presidential elections in 1992 where she has Fidel Ramos as her rival but the latter won. She became very popular because of her statement: “People say I won in the voting but I lost in the counting”. Second was in 1998, again she did not win for there was a black propaganda against her that concerns her mental health but then proven wrong later. The last was the most recent one, where she ran against President Rodrigo Duterte and for the last time, she didn’t win.
Despite a political career that is akin to a wild roller coaster ride, Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago was still able to author numerous laws that are now being implemented in the country. To name a few, she was the force behind the Reproductive Health Act of 2012, Sin Tax Law, Climate Change Act of 2009, Renewable Energy Act of 2008, Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Unified Student Financial Assistance System for Tertiary Education (Unifast) Act, but I think the most important law that she authored was the Magna Carta of Women, which protected the rights of women in the country.
The senator’s hard work is recognized through various awards and honors. She received the Magsaysay Award for Government Service in 1988. She also received the TOYM (Ten Outstanding Young Men) Award for Law in 1985 and the TOWNS (The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service) Award for Law in 1986. She was given the Most Outstanding Alumna in Law by the University of the Philippines in 1988. The most recent one was awarded this year when she received the Distinguished Icon of Legal Excellence and Public Service Award last September . In 2012, Santiago became the first Filipina and the first Asian from a developing country to be elected a judge of the International Criminal Court but then declined to take in the position due to health reasons.
Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago has always been regarded as one of the most intelligent politicians in our country. But we millennials would always remember, aside from the obvious fact that she was an intelligent individual, her intellectually-inclined “banat” compiled in her book “Stupid is Forever”, a collection of jokes, comebacks, one-liners, and pick-up lines she used in speeches. A sequel, titled “Stupid is Forevermore”, was published a year later.
Truly, our country has all the reasons to mourn her death. Though we are aware that she has been undergoing treatments due to her stage four lung cancer, it is still a bit shocking to wake up one day and receive the news that the witty senator has died. It has been a loss not just for her family, but also for our country, for we just lost a politician who truly cared for her countrymen all throughout her political journey. Truly, she is the best president that we never had.
(written by Aronica Azores, edited by Jay Paul Carlos, additional research by Vince Alvin Villarin)