Presidential aspirant Miriam Defensor Santiago.
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES
Following reports that former US president Jimmy Carter is now cancer-free, presidential aspirant and Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago expressed optimism that she can also beat cancer and it will be a non-issue in her presidential campaign.
READ: Jimmy Carter says he’s received 2nd cancer drug treatment
“The positive development in the case of Mr. Carter’s cancer trumps the macabre wishes of my naysayers that I should die before I finish a six-year term as president. If Mr. Carter can do it, I, too, can beat cancer to serve the Filipino people,” she said in a statement on Tuesday.
Carter, now 91, announced that based on his most recent magnetic resonance imaging brain scan, his original cancer spots are gone nor there were any new ones.
Carter, who served as US president from 1977 to 1981, revealed his illness last August.
Meanwhile, Santiago was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer last June 2014. When she filed her certificate of candidacy for president last October, she said that her cancer was “stable.”
READ: I licked stage 4 cancer–Santiago
She is continuing to undergo treatment.
Critics have voiced their concerns on Santiago’s capability to become president because of her cancer. However, she said these concerns were meant to derail her bid for presidency.
READ: Santiago stands up to critics of her health: ‘Why are you so nasty?’
She also rejected the challenge to release her medical records as there was no law that requires public officials to make public their health records.
READ: Santiago refuses doc’s request to release her medical records
The feisty senator is on her third presidential bid after running in 1992 and 1998 elections but lost in both.
READ: ‘Third time’s the charm,’ says Miriam of presidential bid
“My cancer should no longer be a concern in the presidential campaign. I challenge my opponents and their allies to debate instead on issues of national concern. The cancer that demands our urgent attention is corruption and poverty,” the senator said. RAM