Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/GRIG MONTEGRANDE
BIÑAN, Laguna—Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said running against “thieves” was not easy, but vowed not to back down as she sought support from students in this city on Tuesday.
“It’s very hard to fight these thieves who have the money to pay off black propagandists,” Santiago said in a speech at the University of Perpetual Help System here.
“I won’t back down, regardless of what they do to me. I have repeatedly challenged them to a fistfight but no one dared to face me,” she said in Filipino.
Her detractors and critics are saying that Santiago, who is running for President under the People’s Reform Party, cannot sustain her presidential campaign as she is recovering from lung cancer.
Santiago arrived here accompanied by a small group of support staff. She delivered a brief speech before more than 1,000 students and university personnel.
She indulged the students in a quick photo session, but declined to answer questions from reporters and left quickly.
Santiago started her speech by apologizing that she would not be delivering her famous “pick-up lines,” the witty one-liners that have made her a popular speaker. Instead, she said she had prepared a short story, eliciting a collective sigh from the students who began chanting the senator’s name.
Her story, delivered in Filipino, went this way: “Juan said: In 2013, my father ran for mayor. Pedro: Wow! What did he do?
Juan: Nothing because he won.”
Another went: “Do fairy tales start with ‘Once upon a time?’ Answer: No. Others start with, ‘If you elect me.’”
On a more serious note, Santiago turned her guns on officials accused of pocketing public funds.
Some of them “even have the guts to run for President,” she said.
Without naming anyone, Santiago said these “thieves” in government steal public funds and give the money away to voters, as if it was theirs to give during elections.
She said these people get reelected, allowing the “perpetual plunder” to continue.
She said employment would be her administration’s top agenda, promising to create two million jobs through new businesses funded by foreign and local capital.
“Don’t despair for the country. This country loves you. Help me transform our country,” she said.