Tomorrow, Sept. 29, marks the 1st death anniversary of Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago. While in service, she had her fans, as well as her detractors. She also had her share of accolades and controversies. There is no doubt that she had left a very distinguished mark in Philippine public service, perhaps unparalleled to this day.
Miriam was all about threes: she was among the very distinguished few that had successfully served in all three branches of government (as a judge, as a bureaucrat and later a Cabinet member, and as a senator); she served in the Senate for three terms (1995-2001, 2004-2010, 2010-2016); and she ran for the presidency three times (1992, 1998, 2016).
And she was also the first Asian from a third-world country to be elected, in 2011, as a judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which tries cases against leaders accused or crimes against humanity. She had to give up the post, however, after being diagnosed with lung cancer in 2014. Her illness, however, didn’t keep her from her duties at the Senate, or running for president.
In a column written shortly after her death in 2016, I opined that had she lived, Miriam would have made a terrific Foreign Affairs secretary for the Duterte administration, more so now given troubled times overseas. But, we lost her before her time, her whom no less than President Duterte himself referred to as the most qualified presidential candidate in 2016.
Other than her recognition by her international legal peers, resulting in her election to the International Criminal Court or the International Court of Justice in 2011, Miriam had also chaired the Foreign Relations Committee while at the Senate. In her early years as a lawyer, she was also a Legal Officer at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva, Switzerland, assigned to the Conferences and Treaties Section. She was also the first Filipino elected as a commissioner for the International Development Law Organization.
She was special assistant at the Department of Justice during the pre-martial law years, a trial court judge during martial law, was Immigration Commissioner in post-EDSA 1986, and served as Agrarian Reform secretary in the Aquino I administration. She first ran for president in 1992, and almost made it, then first ran for senator in 1995 and won. She would be reelected in 2004 and 2010.
She was the darling of the crowd, and cornered much of the youth vote in 1992. Although UP, her alma mater, may have been divided between her and Jovito Salonga. Alas, it was not the fate of either to be president then. Miriam tried two more times after that, but the magic of 1992 could not be replicated. She could easily win a national seat, as senator, the presidency remained elusive, however.
But even as late as 2016, in her third run for president, Miriam could still wow the crowd, particularly the youth. Her sharp intellect, particularly on legal matters, was still there, as well as her wit and humor. She may have lost the presidency, but her funny remarks were more than enough material to publish not just one but two books of jokes: Stupid is Forever, a collection of jokes, comebacks, one-liners, and pick-up lines she used in speeches, was published in 2014; and a sequel, Stupid is Forevermore, was published in 2015.
On the serious side, being the intellectual that she was, she also authored books on law and social sciences, with the help of publishers like REX Book Store. Among her published works is a series of books about laws passed by the Philippine Congress and Supreme Court decisions. Even while dealing with cancer in 2014, she also managed to update to the 2015 edition most of the law books she had authored.
The doctoral dissertation she wrote for the University of Michigan was also published as a book, Political Offenses in International Law. In addition, she published two autobiographies: “Inventing Myself,” and “Cutting Edge: The Politics of Reform in the Philippines.”
I personally encountered Miriam only a few times as a journalist.
Other than the occasional press gatherings, we hosted her for dinner once, in 1998, as part of a roundtable series that BusinessWorld organized to pick the brains, so to speak, of all the presidential candidates at the time. Back then, and even after, she had always been clear on what she thought to be the best for the country.
In Miriam’s presence, one could always expect to be “schooled,” and to enjoy a good laugh. Caution must always be exercised, however, to avoid her legendary temper. For hers could be an acerbic tongue, and you would never want to be the subject of its ire. And that, to me, were her most memorable traits: her Tapang, Talino, at Tawa. That was Miriam.
Marvin A. Tort is a former managing editor of BusinessWorld, and a former chairman of the Philippines Press Council.
