Feisty Philippine Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago Dead at 71

Called the “Iron Lady of Asia,” the feisty and fearless former Senator from the Philippines, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, died Thursday at 8:52am local time. She died at 71 from lung cancer.

Here’s the posting from Sen. Santiago’s official Facebook page:

Miriam served in all three branches of the Philippine government – judicial, executive, and legislative. Some of her alma maters include University of the Philippines, University of Michigan, Oxford University, Maryhill School of Theology, University of California, Harvard University, and Cambridge University. Santiago was named one of The 100 Most Powerful Women in the World in 1997 by The Australian magazine.

She served three terms in the Philippine Senate. On 13 October 2015, Santiago declared her candidacy for President of the Philippines in the 2016 elections after her doctors from the United States declared her cancer ‘stable’ and ‘receded’, but lost in the elections. She was immortalized by her supporters as ‘the best president we never had’.

She became senator of the republic in 1995 and authored the most number of laws and bills in the entire history of the Philippines.

In 2012, she became the first Filipina and the first Asian from a developing country to be elected a judge of the International Criminal Court.

RIP Madam Miriam Defensor-Santiago!