MANILA, Philippines – Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago was seen on Thursday nursing an injured finger.
During the meet-and-greet for fans for her book “Stupid is Forever,” people noticed that a bandage wrapped around one of her right fingers.
Asked how she was injured, Santiago said it is a side effect of her medication for lung cancer.
“Cancer will always fight back. So I have this wonderful drug but it has its side effects. For example, one of the side effects of my medication is that it makes my fingers bleed. This one is very tightly wound up because it is bleeding,” Santiago explained.
The senator added that her finger bleeds even without contact.
“There is blood gushing out of there. Yet the thing is, I did not do a thing. Nobody touched it. It just gushes out like that. So I have to protect it,” she added.
Yet despite this injury, Santiago maintained that she is feeling better.
“I always feel better, especially when I face my constituency,” the senator said.
The drug, called Tarceva, is being taken by the senator to cure her cancer. She was diagnosed with the disease last July 2014. Santiago has repeatedly said that when she licks the cancer off her body, she might run for president in the 2016 polls.