Miriam Palma Defensor-Santiago (June 15, 1945 – September 29, 2016) was a Filipino stateswoman and lawyer who served in all three branches of the Philippine government: judicial, executive, and legislative. Defensor Santiago was known for being a long serving senator of the Philippines and an elected judge of the International Criminal Court. She is the sole female recipient of the Philippines' highest national honor, the Quezon Service Cross.
In 1988, Defensor Santiago was named laureate of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for government service, with a citation for bold and moral leadership in cleaning up a graft-ridden government agency. After being appointed by President Corazon Aquino as secretary of agrarian reform from 1989 to 1990, she ran in the 1992 presidential election but was defeated in events that involved a car crash injury and power outages during voting process. Defensor Santiago would then serve three terms in the Philippine Senate. After former president Joseph Estrada was arrested on April 25, 2001, she was among the politicians who spoke against EDSA II at pro-Estrada rallies that preceded the May 1 riot near Malacañang Palace.
In 2012, Defensor Santiago was elected as a judge of the International Criminal Court. She later resigned from the post, citing chronic fatigue syndrome. On October 13, 2015, Defensor Santiago declared her third candidacy for president of the Philippines in the 2016 election after her doctors from the United States declared her cancer "stable" and "receded" but lost the election. She died from complications from her cancer on September 29, 2016, and was buried days later at Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina. In December 2018, the prestigious Quezon Service Cross was posthumously conferred upon Defensor Santiago, making her the first woman and the sixth person ever to be awarded. Defensor Santiago was known as the "Iron Lady of Asia". She is colloquially known in Philippine pop culture as simply Miriam or MDS and is cited for her dedication to public service in the Philippine government.
Early life and education Defensor Santiago was born Miriam Palma Defensor in Iloilo City to Benjamin Defensor, a local judge, and Dimpna Palma, a college dean as the eldest of seven children on June 15, 1945. She was a class valedictorian in grade school, high school, and undergraduate school. She graduated from high school in Iloilo Provincial High School. In 1965, Defensor Santiago graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science, magna cum laude from the then University of the Philippines College Iloilo. After graduation, she was elected to the Pi Gamma Mu and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies. She proceeded to the University of the Philippines College of Law. There, she was champion in numerous oratorical contests, debates, and topped written examinations. She became the first female editor of the student newspaper, The Philippine Collegian, and was twice appointed Reserve Officers' Training Corps muse. She graduated with a Bachelor of Laws, cum laude, from the University of the Philippines College of Law in Diliman.
Defensor Santiago went on a fellowship to the United States and earned the Master of Laws and Doctor of Juridical Science degrees at the University of Michigan, studying there from 1974 to 1976. Following her fellowship, she studied in numerous schools including Oxford, Harvard, Cambridge, The Hague Academy of International Law, and the Sophia University. In Oxford, she was a research fellow at St. Hilda's College. At Cambridge, she was a research fellow at the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law. When she was already a senator, she earned the Master of Religious Studies degree at the Maryhill School of Theology. Her inspiration to become a lawyer and legislator growing up was Arturo Tolentino; she gained experience by being mentored by him.
Early career Defensor Santiago served as a special assistant at the Department of Justice before the martial law under Ferdinand Marcos. In the position, she served as one of Marcos' speechwriters. Defensor Santiago served as Legal Officer of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees at Geneva, Switzerland. She was assigned to the Conferences and Treaties Section and gained experience at treaty negotiation and drafting. She resigned her position when her father developed prostate cancer.
In 1983, Defensor Santiago was appointed judge of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Quezon City. She was the youngest judge appointed to Metro Manila, exempt from the rule for newcomers to be appointed to provinces outside Metro Manila. The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation said she handled a record 50 cases a month by avoiding delays and postponements. She also disposed of the highest number of cases in Metro Manila.
Defensor Santiago's decision against martial law drew public attention. At that time, alleged illegal public assemblies were declared as crimes and were punishable by death. A group of activist students from the University of the Philippines and Ateneo, as well as activists in the film industry, staged a rally in a central business district, and denounced the First Lady for her excesses. This caused Marcos to issue an order which authorized the military to hold suspects indefinitely without bail. Defensor Santiago suspended hearings on all other pending cases and conducted whole-day trials. She eventually ordered the military to allow the students to post bail.
Immigration Commissioner After martial law ended, President Corazon Aquino appointed Defensor Santiago as commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation in 1988. According to The New York Times, the BID was one of the most corrupt government agencies in Southeast Asia. Defensor Santiago declared the Philippines "the fake passport capital of the world", and directed raids against criminal syndicates, including the Yakuza. She filled the CID detention center with alien criminals and ordered the construction of another detention center. She protected legal aliens from extortion by requesting President Aquino to issue an executive order that authorized the "alien legalization program". She received serious death threats but proclaimed: "I eat death threats for breakfast". A member of the House of Representatives, Laguna Rep. Nereo Joaquin delivered a privilege speech in 1992 and denounced her raids against pedophile communities in Central Luzon run by alien pedophiles. Defensor Santiago responded by calling him "fungus face".
Secretary of Agrarian Reform President Aquino promoted Defensor-Santiago to a member of her cabinet as Secretary of Agrarian Reform in 1989. She eventually returned to private citizenship. She served as the chair of the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council Executive Committee in 1989.
1992 presidential campaign
Defensor Santiago's candidacy for President of the Philippines was confirmed on February 19, 1990. She ran under the People's Reform Party (PRP) with a senatorial ticket of 16 candidates during the 1992 presidential campaign; Ramon Magsaysay Jr. was her running mate. Due to a lack of funding, she called on university students to campaign house-to-house for her. She had a large fanbase during her campaigns and rallies. While campaigning on April 28, 1991, she was injured in a car crash, which she claimed was an assassination attempt. According to Cynthia Balana of Philippine Daily Inquirer, she was stationed at the V. Luna General Hospital. She eventually went to the Metropolitan Hospital College of Nursing. At the hospital, a Catholic priest administered the last rites of the dying. Two months later, she recovered and continued campaigning. When she continued campaigning, numerous presidential surveys including ones from the Social Weather Stations and the University of Santo Tomas predicted her as the winner. Since Defensor Santiago did not have funding, her youth supporters served as poll watchers in precincts. During the first televised presidential debates in the election, she won the award of "Best Debater".
Defensor 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 with a vote count of 5,342,521, 23.6 percent of the votes. Defensor Santiago, on the other hand, gained a smaller 4,468,173 votes, 19.7 percent of the votes. According to the Senate of the Philippines, 100 candidates from the PRP won; in Western Visayas, her home region, she won 98 percent of the votes. Defensor Santiago filed a protest before the Supreme Court as an electoral tribunal, citing power outages during the counting of votes as evidence of massive fraud. Her election protest was eventually dismissed on a technicality. Public outrage over the presidential results prompted Newsweek to feature her and her rival on the cover with the question: "Was the Election Fair?" In another cover story, Philippines Free Press magazine asked: "Who's the Real President?". The quote, "Miriam won in the elections but lost in the counting" became popularized due to her loss.
Senator
First term, 1995–2001; EDSA II and III Defensor Santiago was first elected senator in 1995. She was among the yearly topnotchers by the number of bills filed. She ran in the 1998 Philippine presidential election and did not field any senatorial candidates. In the election, she gained 7th place out of 10 candidates with 797,206 votes, serving as 3 percent of the votes. In 2000, she filed in the Senate the first version of the anti-discrimination bill which would later become the SOGIE Equality Bill. She was one of the few senators who were against the opening of the second envelope—an envelope which allegedly contained evidence against then-President Joseph Estrada—during Estrada's impeachment trial; he was her foe in the 1998 presidential elections. She said afterwards:
Estrada was ousted in the Second EDSA Revolution in January 2001 and succeeded by Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, which Defensor Santiago considered illegal under the Philippine Constitution due to the lack of a formal resignation from Estrada. In her support for Estrada, she once mentioned that she would jump off an airplane without a parachute if Estrada is arrested. After Estrada's arrest on April 25, 2001, Defensor Santiago joined other politicians in attending and speaking at pro-Estrada rallies held in the succeeding days at EDSA Shrine, where she demanded the resignation of Arroyo and her entire cabinet and the reinstatement of Estrada as president lest the protesters storm Malacañang Palace. The rallies she spoke in were soon followed by the May 1 riots initiated by the rallyists going to Malacañang, where reporters from the Philippine Daily Inquirer noted their attempts to storm the institution's premises being preceded by statements from Santiago the previous night that went: "I am bored. Let's not wait for the military and police. Let's do it, just us. Now!" After the May 1 incident, Santiago remained defiant in her stance against the Arroyo presidency, and was denounced by her cousin, Governor Arthur Defensor Sr. of Iloilo, for her rhetoric. Defensor Santiago lost re-election to the Senate in the 2001 elections, gaining 15th place with 9,622,742 votes. Second term, 2004–2010 Defensor Santiago ran for senator in 2004 and was elected as a part of the People's Reform Party. Estrada was pardoned by President Arroyo on October 26, 2007. The Renewable Energy Act of 2008 mandated the government to shift the energy source of the country from coal and oil into solar, wind, and other renewable sources; Defensor Santiago included a proposal in the bill. Senate Bill No. 2583, known as the Climate Change Act of 2009, was passed by the Senate on June 3, 2009, incorporating amendments from Defensor Santiago. The bill highlights the action needed in solving climate change.
Third term, 2010–2016