Friends, enemies pay tribute to ‘Iron Lady’

MANILA, Philippines - “I have no illusions about myself, about my life, about leaving a legacy, or making a mark in people’s lives. We are so insignificant. We are only here for a blink.”

Former senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who passed away at age 71 yesterday, wrote these in her book, Stupid is Forevermore.

Her words proved she was a woman of contradiction, given the tributes that poured in as news about her death spread: the Iron Lady of Asia who would melt whenever her husband and family were around; feisty but caring, sweet and funny; an intellectual who could easily connect with the masses with her pick-up, hugot or taray lines; and a grandmother who became a social media darling, popular with the millennials and the youth.

As a public servant, she had her ups and downs. But the magic and power of her words, along with her works particularly as judge, immigration commissioner and then lawmaker, made friends and enemies agree that her death marked the end of an era in Philippine politics.

Santiago’s former colleagues at the Senate, along with the new senators and others who mourned her death, described her as one of a kind, what with her “intelligence, courage and wit,” and that the session hall would be boring without her.

“She was brains, beauty and balls,” Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto said, adding Santiago “set the benchmark in clarity of thought and convincing discourse.”

Recto said Santiago rarely used invectives or cursed in debates, “but she was able to demolish her opponents using language that was devastating yet most elegant.”

As an intellectual giant, Recto said those who would come after her would be reduced as “students forever” cherishing her words as beacons that would “light their way and illuminate their minds.”

Former Senate president Manuel Villar Jr. said Santiago left behind a legacy and a body of work that would be hard to beat.

“She personified legislative vigor and sharpness. She epitomized the Senate’s self-designated role as the last line of defense versus threats to democracy and mediocrity,” Villar said.

“Miriam held herself high in the Parthenon of ideas and ideals. In the halls of the Senate dominated by bears, she was the lioness. If the intellectual meter in the chamber is low, Miriam can always be depended on to deliver the cerebral serum,” Villar noted.

As a personal friend, Villar said Santiago could be sometimes “acerbic and brutal” but I could “vouch for her honesty.”

“I know her as a loving and caring person. She was always bigger than life. Vintage Miriam,” Villar said.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano described Santiago as a “towering figure among titans of the Senate halls” like the late senators Joker Arroyo, Ernesto Maceda and Jovito Salonga.

Quezon City Rep. Feliciano Belmonte Jr., who is godfather to Santiago’s son who passed away years back, said he and his family were saddened by her death.

“Philippine politics will not be the same without the staunch and feisty Miriam. We will miss her intelligence, wit and vast legal expertise which she has shared as university professor and earned for the country the distinction of being the first Asian elected judge to the International Criminal Court,” Belmonte said.

“It is a privilege to have worked with Miriam and we thank her for her dedication to the country, having served well in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government,” Belmonte added.

Rep. Lito Atienza of party-list group Buhay said the nation “lost a fearless fighter” and an ideal public servant. “We will always cherish our struggles in her presidential candidacy in 1992,” Atienza said.

Villar’s wife and incumbent senator Cynthia said Santiago would be remembered as an icon for women because of her fighting spirit.

Sen. Grace Poe called for a moment of silence during a hearing on the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill by the Senate committee of public information upon learning of Santiago’s death.

She recalled that as a young senator, she had sleepless nights in 2013 preparing after finding out that Santiago would interpellate her as she was about to defend for the first time the FOI bill on the floor.

Sen. Loren Legarda said Santiago was a remarkable lady who continued to serve the country despite her medical condition.

The Philippine flag was flown at half-staff at the Senate to pay respect to Santiago.

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez led Congress in remembering one of its most colorful members.

Pimentel said Santiago was the “best president our nation never had” and whose words and actions had an impact, not only in the halls of Congress, but in the international arena.

“Her example will inspire not only many more patriotic Filipino women to go into public service but countless more of our young who have looked up to her as our moral compass,” Pimentel added.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan, who was a student of Santiago like Pimentel, said the Senate was blessed to have had her, “providing both excitement and education on law, vocabulary and humor. She will be missed.”

Part of history

Former Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile and Sen. Panfilo Lacson –both of whom had bitter quarrels with Santiago when they were together in the Senate – only had kind words for her.

“We may not have been the best of friends but we were colleagues. But she will always be remembered as a passionate, articulate and a certified and renowned constitutionalist,” Lacson told reporters.

Enrile, who Santiago once called a “hypersexualized serial womanizer” and the “mastermind of plunder,” expressed sadness over the passing of his late goddaughter and stressed that he did not have any grudge against anyone.

“Forget that (quarrels). It’s part of history. Let it go,” he said, noting that he would say silent prayers for her. – Jess Diaz, Christina Mendez