Highest recognition sought for Miriam

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Grace Poe urged President Rodrigo Duterte to nominate the late Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago for the conferment of the Quezon Service Cross, the highest recognition of the country.

Poe filed Senate Resolution 508 which seeks the nomination of Santiago for her "legacy of dedicated, outstanding and selfless" service to the Filipino people.

"Miriam Defensor Santiago has dedicated her life to public service through her work in all the branches of government: judicial, executive and legislative. Throughout her 46-year career in the public service, Santiago embodied values that she herself demanded of leaders: academic, professional and moral character," Poe said in her resolution.

Both houses of Congress must approve the nomination of the late legislator for the award, which has only been given to five people since its creation.

The past recipients of the awards are former Interior Sec. Jesse Robredo (November 2012), former Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. (August 2004), former President Ramon Magsaysay (July 1957), former President Emilio Aguinaldo (June 1956) and former President Carlos Romulo (April 1951).

Created in 1946, the Quezon Service Cross is awarded to a person "for exemplary service to the nation in memory of the late President Manuel L. Quezon."

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"Bestowing upon Santiago the Quezon Service Cross will ensure that her legacy of dedicated, outstanding and selfless public service will endure for Filipinos to emulate," Poe said.

The senator stressed that her late colleague's "crusade against the culture of corruption, steadfastness on the rule of law and determination to hold public officials to a higher standard reverberate across generations."

In her 46 years of service in the government, Santiago had worked as presiding judge of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, Immigration Commissioner, Agrarian Reform Secretary and senator for three terms.

In 1988, she received the Ramon Magsaysay Award, dubbed as Asia's version of the Nobel Prize, for her exemplary government service.

She was the first Filipino and first Asian from a developing country to be elected as judge of The Hague-based International Criminal Court. In 2016, she became a member of the International Advisory Council of the International Development Law Organization.

During her term as chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, Santiago sponsored the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, United Nations Convention Against Corruption, International Labor Organization Convention on Migration for Employment, Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement, Revised Kyoto Convention, Association of Southeast Asian Nations Charter, ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response, and ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution.

Santiago passed away on Sept. 29, 2016. She was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer in 2014.

READ: Miriam Defensor-Santiago passes away at 71