Is Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago running for president?
Santiago on Wednesday hinted that she will vie for the highest position in the land in the 2016 general elections.
“I am not going to be coy. Society leaders have have urged me to seek the presidency. I can rise to the occasion,” Santiago was quoted in a photo posted on her Facebook account.
With the hashtag #WittyWednesday and #MiriamFight, the quote graphics posted on her verified Facebook account on Wednesday garnered at least 26,000 likes and 1,450 shares as of writing.
In the same photo, Santiago is seen going through some papers that look like a certificate of candidacy. On her left is a stamp pad which can be used to imprint a thumb mark.
But the words of the senator are nothing new. The quote was from a statement she sent to the members of the media in August 27, 2014.
In July 2015, announcing that she has “licked cancer,” Santiago expressed her interest in the presidency after a survey by consultancy firm Publicus Asia showed that she was the second preferred presidential candidate next to Senator Grace Poe.
READ: ‘I’ve licked cancer, I may run for president’ – Santiago
Breaking her long silence, the post took many of the lady senator’s supporters by surprise as it came few days before the deadline of filing of certificates of candidacy in October 16.
#WittyWednesday #MiriamFight
Posted by Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago on Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Santiago, who gave up her post as elected judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, is battling cancer.
In June 2014, the feisty senator announced that she had been diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer and had to take a medical leave.
But the senator has continued performing her duties as a senator after writing Senate President Franklin Drilon.
“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 January 3 letter.
There’s no way but up for Santiago whose term as a senator will end in 2016.
If ever, she would be the fourth presidential candidate, others being Vice President Jejomar Binay, former interior secretary Mar Roxas and Senator Grace Poe.
Binay confirmed that Santiago was one of those being considered as his running mate by his search committee.
But the possible tandem between Binay and Senator Gringo Honasan made more noise as the deadline approaches.
Santiago said that the election landscape was too boring and implied that her participation in the presidential derby could spice it up.
“I expect to be able to run for president if I get well, simply because it’s boring, boring, boring. The landscape is boring,” she said in January 2015.
Santiago first ran for president in 1992 but lost to former President Fidel V. Ramos in an election she claims was rigged. She ran under her own People’s Reform Party.