Miriam Santiago will run for president in 2016

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Tuesday said she will run for president in the 2016 elections.

Asked by reporters if she will file her certificate of candidacy for the presidency this week, Santiago answered a simple “yes.”

She added that her running mate is someone who has already declared his or her candidacy.

Santiago said the Philippines will be a “much better country” if she will become president in the “near future.”

READ: Miriam Santiago: PH will be much better if I become president

“If I become president some time in the very near future, this country will be much better than it was before. Today, this country suffers from the malaise of plunder. Plunder is when you look at a person and the person looks at you and you feel like eating each other up. It’s like cancer,” said Santiago, who is currently on medical leave at the Senate for battling Stage 4 lung cancer.

“The one thing bad about cancer is it tends to eat up its neighbor,” she added.

Santiago said she will try “to make this country better” through her faith and with the help of fellow Filipinos.

“So we will try to make this country better simply by trusting in the Lord, trusting in yourself—trusting that you yourself may lead in God’s great heaven where we know He loves,” the senator added.

Santiago made the statement during the meet-and-greet and book signing event for “Stupid is Forevermore,” the sequel to her best-selling collection of witty pick-up lines, jokes and anecdotes “Stupid is Forever.”

In a Facebook post last week, Santiago hinted through a quote graphics that she may vie for the presidency in next year’s polls: “I am not going to be coy. Society leaders have have urged me to seek the presidency. I can rise to the occasion.”

She also uploaded in her Facebook account a video clip of her speech during her 1992 presidential run, where she lost to former president Fidel V. Ramos in a hotly contested race. JE