Miriam Palma Defensor Santiago

(June 15, 1945 – September 29, 2016)

Miriam Palma Defensor Santiago was a Filipino academic, lawyer, judge, author, and statesman,
who served in all three branches of the Philippine government: judicial, executive, and
legislative. She was a long-serving Senator of the Republic of the Philippines.
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, She ran in the 1992 presidential elections but was controversially defeated.
In 2012, Defensor Santiago became the first Filipina and the first Asian from a developing
country to be elected a judge of the International Criminal Court. She later resigned the post,
citing chronic fatigue syndrome, which turned out to be lung cancer. In 2016, she became part of
the International Advisory Council of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO),
an intergovernmental body that promotes the rule of law.

Defensor Santiago served three terms in the Philippine Senate. On 13 October 2015, Defensor
Santiago declared her 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 in the election.
In December 2018, the prestigious Quezon Service Cross was posthumously conferred upon
Santiago, making her the first and only woman and the sixth person since 1946 to be enthroned
in the country's highest roster.[13]

Defensor Santiago was known as the Dragon Lady, the Platinum Lady, the Incorruptible Lady,
the Tiger Lady, and most popularly, the Iron Lady of Asia. She is colloquially known in
Philippine pop culture as simply Miriam or MDS.
 She is my favorite Leader
A notable woman who have served all 3 branches of the government, Senator Miriam
Santiago was a great patriot who dedicated her life to serving the country. We are out of
words to adequately express our deep gratitude for all the selfless work she has done
for our country. A moral giant in the fight against corruption, and an intellectual force
and brilliant legal mind in Philippine politics. While she did not always win her political
battles, she always stood on the side of what was moral, what was legal, what was
constitutional, and ultimately what was good for the Filipino people. She was the best
president our nation never had. She was an intellectual giant and a legal luminary whose
wit and words benefited this nation and its people so many times over. You will
continue to be an idol and inspiration to many Filipinos.

Reason why Miriam Santiago is Extraordinary

1. Miriam Santiago is the first ever Filipino to become a judge of the International Criminal
Court.
2. She is among the most significant and respectable members of the Philippine Senate.
3. Her stand for integrity and justice in government service in unmatchable.
4. She is the woman senator with the longest term in Philippine history.
5. She has excelled in almost every area of her career since she was a child.
6. She is among the few ones who does not allow corrupt practices in the Senate.
7. She has an extensive private and public career that has always been excellent in rating.
8. She is among the few senators who has written and co-written the most number of bills
and acts.
9. She wrote the most number of bills during her first term as a senator.
10. She is outspoken and bold, and always fights for justice and truth.
Miriam Palma Defensor Santiago
The Quezon Service Cross, the highest recognition that the government can give to Filipino
citizens, is the most fitting tribute to the late former Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago for her “legacy
of dedicated, outstanding and selfless” service to Filipinos, Sen. Grace Poe said on Monday.

Barely a year after Santiago’s death, Poe filed Senate Resolution 508 urging President Rodrigo
Duterte to nominate the highly esteemed constitutional and international law expert, author,
professor and mother for conferment of the award, posthumously.

“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,” she said in her resolution.

In urging Malacanang to nominate Santiago for conferment of the award that both houses of
Congress must approve, Poe cited the late legislator’s “crusade against the culture of corruption,
steadfastness on the rule of law and determination to hold public officials to a higher standard
[which] reverberate across generations.”

“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,” she said.

Throughout Santiago’s 46-year career in the government as presiding judge of the Quezon City
Regional Trial Court, Immigration commissioner, Agrarian Reform secretary and senator for three
terms, she “embodied values that she herself demanded of leaders: academic, professional and
moral excellence.”

Santiago was a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award, dubbed as Asia’s version of the Nobel
Prize, in 1988 for exemplary government service.

She was elevated to the Philippine Judges Association Hall of Fame in 2015 and was awarded
outstanding alumna of the University of the Philippines Alumni Association (Iloilo Chapter) in
2015, Girl Scouts of the Philippines Golden Jubilee Achievement Award for Public Service in
1990, YMCA Philippines Gold Vision Triangle Award for Government Service in 1988, Civic
Assembly of Women of the Philippines Republic Anniversary Award for Law Enforcement in
1988, University of the Philippines’ Most Outstanding Alumna in Law in 1988, The Outstanding
Women in Nation’s Service Award for Law in 1986 and Outstanding Young Men Award for Law
in 1985.

Santiago had consistently filed the most number of bills and resolutions and authored several
notable laws including the Reproductive Health Act, Data Privacy Act, Anti-Enforced or
Involuntary Disappearance Act, Anti-Bullying Act, Cybercrime Prevention Act, Anti-Torture Act,
Law Restructuring Alcohol and Tobacco Excise Tax, Fair Competition Act, Children’s Emergency
Relief and Protection Act, Intellectual Property Code, Fair Election Act, Oil Pollution
Compensation Act, Biofuels Act and Magna Carta of Women, among others.

As chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, she 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 brought victory to the Philippines in 2013 when she became the first Filipino and first
Asian from a developing country to be elected as judge of The Hague-based International Criminal
Court, an independent body that prosecutes individuals for the most serious crimes of genocide,
crimes against humanity and war crimes.

In 2016, she became a member of the International Advisory Council of the International
Development Law Organization.