‘Bored’ Miriam Santiago may run in 2016

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago: The landscape is boring. INQUIRER PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines–Given the “boring” choices, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Monday spoke again of her intention to run for president, but with a big “if.”

“I expect to be able to run for president if I get well, simply because it’s boring, boring, boring. The landscape is boring,” the cancer-stricken senator said, chuckling.

“Who are you going to choose for president, haber, Sandra?” she asked GMA 7 reporter Sandra Aguinaldo. “So I might as well give you someone who can write a book like Stupid Is Forever.” She was referring to her best-selling collection of pickup lines and one-liners.

Santiago, who was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer in June last year, said she was doing well “under my present medication.”

“But you can notice for example that I am always out of breath and I cannot always call to mind a word that I want to use,” she told reporters after presiding over a hearing on the constitutionality of the draft law carving out a Bangsamoro region in Mindanao.

“Otherwise, I am going forward. I can read my books very well. I still maintain my intellectual acuity. I don’t mistake other people for my husband, for example. I’m quite sure who he is,” she said, drawing laughter.

Santiago had earlier written Senate President Franklin Drilon and other senators about her intention to continue performing her duties until 2016 on a qualified medical leave.

“I would like to tell you that I have decided to remain in office until the end of my term in 2016, on condition that I shall be on qualified medical leave,” she said in a Jan. 23 letter.

“This qualification is to allow me to discharge, on a certain priority basis, my important functions as a senator, particularly as a committee chair, for as long as I am allowed to do so by my condition,” she said.

Last year, despite her condition, she said she continued to file resolutions and bills, to chair hearings and speak in public forums.

“To repeat, I am sick of lung cancer, stage 4. I am under treatment by a panel of doctors from St. Luke’s Global City and Makati Medical Center. In the near future, I plan to go to Los Angeles and New York, particularly to the Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center, for second opinions or further treatment. Cancer is characterized by pain, bleeding and fatigue,” she said.

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