SC, BI remember Miriam's contribution to law, fight vs. criminals

The Supreme Court on Thursday joined the nation in mourning the death of former Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, who wore many hats in her decades-old career as a public servant.

In a statement, the high court offered its "prayers for comfort" for Santiago's loved ones and remembered her "significant contributions" to law as a "scholar, professor, author, and lawmaker."

Santiago, who succumbed to lung cancer at age 71, once tried to head the judiciary. She applied for the position of Chief Justice in 2006 but lost to then Associate Justice Reynato Puno.

The former senator was so upset with her exclusion from the final list of nominees that she even threatened to block a higher budget for the SC for 2007 and slash the budget of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), which vets nominees to the judiciary, to a measly P100.

She accused then Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban, who was JBC chairperson at the time, of orchestrating her exclusion.

"He (Panganiban) was the twisted brain behind this," Santiago said in an interview on December 4, 2006.

Santiago said that being an ally of then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo hurt her bid owing to Panganiban’s closeness to the late Senator Jovito Salonga, an Arroyo critic.

Apart from being a senator, Santiago was a trial court judge, Agrarian Reform secretary, and Immigration commissioner, of which she earned a Ramon Magsaysay award—Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize—for her anti-corruption efforts.

"Sen. Miriam, who once served as Immigration chief under then President Corazon Aquino, directed raids against criminal syndicates, including the Yakuza, and championed the Alien Legalization Program, among many others," Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said.

With her outstanding academic and professional accomplishments, Santiago's passing, Morente said, "is a heavy loss for the whole country."

"Words are truly inadequate in moments like this," he added.

Morente also said they are "truly honored and blessed" to have known Santiago.

"She may depart from this earth, but she will always stay alive in the hearts and minds of the Filipino people whom she promised to serve ‘till her last breath," he said.  —KBK, GMA News