Miriam is a great loss – Iloilo governor

‘We lost a great legislator,’ says Iloilo Gov. Arthur Defensor on the passing of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago. INQUIRER FILE

ILOILO CITY, Philippines — “We have a lost a great legislator, jurist, legal expert and intellectual.”

This was the reaction of Iloilo Gov. Arthur Defensor to the passing of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, his first cousin.

READ: Miriam Defensor-Santiago passes away at 71

Defensor said the country would forever remember Santiago as a fighter for freedom and against corruption.

“Her deeds are already cast in stone,” the governor said in telephone interview.

The governor said his family shared the grief of the senator’s family.

Santiago’s husband, Narciso Santiago, announced on Thursday that the senator died in her sleep. CBB/rga