“The Iron Lady of Asia”
Miriam Palma Defensor Santiago was born on June 15, 1945 in Iloilo City, and his parents
were judge in their district Benjamin A. Defensor and his mother, Dimpna Palma Defensor who
was a Lincoln school teacher educated also a senator when he was in preschool years only. Ever
since he was a kid, he was fascinated with honors and recognition, when he was in elementary
school he was often a valedictorian of his classes, and he was also a "student editor" with their
newspapers school.
At the age of sixteen, he immediately entered the University of the Philippines in Iloilo,
where he took the pre-law Political Science course, and said that this course was humiliating
because it was too easy. After graduating from UP visayas, he again studied at UP, and took the
course he wanted, Law. While attending law at the University of the Philippines, she was also in
charge and the first woman who became editor in chief of UP newspaper "philipine collegian"
she also led ROTC as Corps commander in 1968 and in 1969. He is continuously supported
because of his scholarship as well. In UP he also met his wife, Narciso Santiago, who was
fortunate enough to take the Law at UP but Narciso was not a good example but still wanted the
Iranian Lady of Southeast Asia to "opposites do attract". They were married on 14 June 1970, in
which Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr. sponsored
After graduating from the law college, a number of famous companies are encouraging him
to work under them, but Senator Santiago sees work under the government where he is needed.
And he worked as secretary of Juan ponce Enrile and after that the Martial Law passed. He also
served as a teacher in Abad Santos where he filled with good deeds.
In 1974, with Abad Santos's blessing, Senator Defensor-Santiago went to the University of
Michigan, for his graduate, and then he obtained a doctorate degree. And he returned to the
Philippines for service. And after a few years they have been rewarded as a regional trial judge,
and convicted guilty. Until the passing of the events in which Senator Aquino was killed, the
EDSA rebellion came underway and Corazon Aquino became president and Senator Defensor-
Santiago was stationed at the Commision on Immigration and Deportation and he pursued the
crimes of corruption, and problems that day-to-day involve. After President Corazon Aquino
declared her intention not to seek another term in the 1992 elections, Santiago ran for president,
seeking Aquino's endorsement. She founded the People's Reform Party (PRP) as her vehicle,
inviting Ramon Magsaysay, Jr. to be her running mate. The party did not have any other
candidates at the national level and endorsed only two local candidates Alfredo Lim and Lito
Atienza for the position of mayor and vice mayor of Manila. Santiago was leading the
canvassing of votes for the first five days. Following a string of power outages, the tabulation
concluded, and Ramos was declared President-elect.
Santiago filed a protest before the electoral tribunal citing the power outages during the
counting of votes as evidence of massive fraud. Her election protest was eventually dismissed.
Many believed that this election was marred by fraud because of the nationwide power outages.
Santiago ran for the Senate of the Philippines in 1995 elections, again as a candidate of her
own PRP. She was elected to the senate and served as a senator from 1995 to 2001. As a Senator,
Santiago became a vocal critic of the Ramos Administration. She filed the most number of bills
in the Senate during her term. Santiago again ran for president in the 1998 elections and invited
former Marcos crony Francisco Tatad to be her running mate against Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino
candidate Joseph Estrada but lost by a landslide. After losing the election, Santiago returned to
the Senate. In 2001 Santiago ran for reelection but lost.
In 2004, Miriam won her second term as senator. In late 2006, a group of her former
students nominated her for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. All candidates were requested by
the Judicial and Bar Council, the nominating body, to submit an application and bio-data and
undergo an interview. No one showed up but Santiago. Deeply humiliated, she threw a series of
public tantrums and tried to save face by saying she would give way to the senior associate
justice, because at age 61 she was "too young for the post". She ran for reelection in the
Philippine Senate election in 2010 under the her PRP and as a guest candidate for six different
political parties. She finished third among other senatorial candidates, she garnered more than 17
million votes.
In 2012, Santiago proved to be the most important personality in the Impeachemt trial of
the Chief Justice Renato Corona. She, along with fellow Senators Joker Arroyo and Ferdinand
Marcos, Jr., were the only senator-judges to vote to acquit the chief magistrate.Also in 2012,
Santiago sponsored two controversial bills: Sin Tax Reform Act of 2012 (with Senator Franklin
Drilon) and the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 (with Senator Pia
Cayetano).
On December 12, 2011, Senator Santiago was elected to a nine-year tenure as judge of the
International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague, Netherlands. Although she is currently
listed as a judge by the ICC, she has yet to take her oath and assume her office there. Santiago
was absent during the March 9, 2012 oath-taking of new judges due to medical reasons, citing
her elevated blood pressure and bone marrow aplasia, but later went on to reveal that she had
written the president of the ICC to request that she be the last of the six newly elected judges to
take her post to allow her more time to fulfill her responsibilities as a Philippine senator.
At the age of 71, Defensor Santiago died in her sleep at exactly 8:52 a.m. on 29 September
2016 while she was confined at the St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig from lung cancer;
several reports cited that Defensor Santiago died in her residence in La Vista Subdivision,
Quezon City. Santiago's last words according to her husband were, "I accept this. I do not want
to do anything heroic”. While her last wish was to remain only in the memory of her own family.
Her body lay in state at the Cathedral Grottos of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Cubao
the following day. Senator Miriam was one of a kind. And people are lucky because like a
meteor that streaks across our skies once every century, we were able to witness her dazzling
brilliance during our lifetime,
