Former Vice President Jejomar Binay and former Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago.
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON
Former vice president Jejomar Binay gave a tribute to the late senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who he called one of the country’s greatest leaders.
READ: Miriam Defensor-Santiago passes away at 71
“I join the nation and the Filipino people in mourning the death of Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago. We will remember Miriam for the fiery and sharp rhetoric that has defined her public persona,” Binay said in a statement.
Binay and Santiago were contenders in the last May 2016 presidential elections.
Binay recounted his student days with Santiago at the University of the Philippines-Diliman where they both served at the University Student Council.
“Those of us who have known her since college will remember Miriam as a caring and sincere woman whose discipline and intellect made her one of the nation’s greatest leaders,” Binay said.
“Our prayers go to Jun and her family,” he added.
Santiago ran but lost in the May 2016 presidential elections with her running mate then senator Bongbong Marcos. She was battling stage four lung cancer.
Santiago’s husband Narciso “Jun” Santiago told the Inquirer that his wife passed away at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City, where she had been taken on and off for complications of her ailment.
BACKSTORY: Miriam Santiago: ‘I got lung cancer’
Santiago’s family said she died in her sleep at 8:52 a.m. IDL