Powerhouse cast colors Miriam’s wedding rites

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago. AFP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Dark red or ruby is the traditional color theme of the affair, symbolic of the passion that is still strong and alive after 40 years together.

But trust Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago to proclaim it to be in “political technicolor.”

The senator and her husband, Narciso Santiago Jr., are renewing their marriage vows at the Manila Cathedral on June 19, coincidentally also the national hero Jose Rizal’s 150th birth anniversary.

The Santiagos’ 40th wedding anniversary celebration will gather a powerhouse cast, led by President Benigno Aquino III, two former presidents, a former first lady, a vice president and a chief justice.

For being “irresistibly charming,” actress Heart Evangelista, was chosen by the senator as her maid of honor. Defensor-Santiago described Evangelista—said to be a crush of her late son—as a “virtual daughter” whom she “loves to bits.”

“My main problem will be how to avoid ostentation because I want it to be in technicolor, meaning to say, all political colors will be represented,” Defensor-Santiago said in an interview.

“This, in effect, is a celebration of humanity. I am very, very happy to have worked with all these people in my political career,” she said.

The unforgiven

Even at 66 and almost two decades after her failed bid for the presidency, Defensor-Santiago cannot bring herself to forgive and forget or bury the hatchet with former President Fidel Ramos, whom she accused of manipulating the results of the 1992 elections.

“My policy has been to cooperate with any incumbent or sitting president, except the one, who, until now and up to my dying day, I will allege (to have) cheated the Filipino people,” she said.

This explains the conspicuous absence of Ramos in the roster of 14 principal sponsors, which includes former Presidents Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Also in the list are Ilocos Norte Representative Imelda Marcos, the widow of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Vice President Jejomar Binay, Chief Justice Renato Corona, and businessman Eduardo  Cojuangco Jr., a candidate in the 1992 presidential race.

The senator has ensured there won’t be any network or media rivalry. The Inquirer’s chair Marixi Prieto, Manila Bulletin chair Emilio Yap, GMA 7 chair and CEO Felipe Gozon, Lopez Group chair emeritus Oscar Lopez are among the principal sponsors. The other sponsors are SM Investments Corp. vice chair Teresita Sy Coson, Unilab head Jocelyn Campos Hess, Justice Consuelo Ynares-Santiago and Ma. Paz Cojuangco Teopaco.

Political astuteness

A look at the wedding invitation suggests the bride’s high level of political adroitness (others call it “turncoatism”). It’s a trait that has allowed her to jump from supporting one president to another, when others with less political savvy could have easily been labeled balimbing (turncoat).

Defensor-Santiago, a known ally of Arroyo, appears to be getting cozy with the Aquino administration. Mr. Aquino will not only be the premier guest, he has also agreed to be the groom’s best man. Defensor-Santiago supported Senator Manuel Villar in the 2010 presidential election, not Mr. Aquino, whose criticism of Arroyo has extended from the election campaign and beyond.

“I’ve always been a willing conspirator of every sitting president,” the senator said.

Standing in for Ninoy

While admitting that she is not close to the President, Defensor-Santiago said his intimate role in the wedding is meant to “honor the memory” of his father, the martyred Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., with whom the Santiago couple had a deep affinity. The elder Aquino stood as a principal sponsor at their 1971 wedding, a picture of which is included in the official invitation.

The senator also has fond memories of the younger Aquino during his brief stint at the Senate. She remembers him as “very scrupulous” and with a “very, very strict interpretation of what his duties were.” They worked on one or two bills, jointly defending the measures during plenary debates.

She said she once told her colleague that she would be fine defending the bill by herself, an experience that could be “harrowing” for a neophyte member of the chamber.

But Mr. Aquino, a cosponsor of the bill, stood by Defensor-Santiago’s side on the floor and told her: “No, it’s my duty to defend (the bill).”

“You take things too seriously,” she replied in jest.

Campus romance

The Santiagos’ love story began at the University of the Philippines when they were both attending law school. He was from Tarlac, she was from Iloilo, an academic superstar of sorts who seemed to have very little interest in romance.

Defensor-Santiago—outspoken, feisty, mercurial—said she was attracted to Narciso Santiago because he was her “opposite.” They shared intellectual and philosophical interests, but their personalities could not have been more different.

Santiago, who would later become interior undersecretary, was soft spoken and low profile though he is known to be the senator’s most important supporter in her political career. Never mind if, to some people, he is better known as the husband of Miriam Defensor.

Super-duper event

Defensor-Santigao describes the June 19 affair as a “super-duper event” that would feature “the cream of Metro Manila’s political and cultural society.” Organizers have, in fact, begun sending out applications for media accreditation.

Some 600 guests are expected to show up at the historic cathedral and later at the Manila Hotel’s Centennial Hall for the reception. The senator said she was still making arrangements for student leaders from Metro Manila colleges to attend the celebration.

No specific amount was mentioned as the budget for such a huge event. But just so she won’t be “accused of overspending,” Defensor-Santiago said she has enlisted Estrada and Imelda as de facto wedding singers.

“We’re trying to make it simple that there will be no paid celebrities,” she said.

She will wear a gown by Inno Sotto, who also designed her dress for her silver wedding anniversary. But to be able to defray the cost of her 40th wedding anniversary, she will not be wearing rubies and will instead wear “an equally sparkling set made of zirconia.”

“In other words, I will wear an expensive fake,” she said.

Cast of characters

The opulence of the affair can be better gleaned from the cast of characters. Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales will officiate at the renewal of vows, which will start at about 6 p.m. Protocol dictates that the President be “the last to arrive and the first to leave” the cathedral.

The list of secondary sponsors includes Villar and his wife Cynthia (cord), Senator Mar Roxas and his wife Korina Sanchez (candle) and business tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan, who will be in charge of the veil with banker Evelyn Singson. Former Health and Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral and Ma. Isabel Ongpin will be the Bible readers.

The offerors include Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., whom Defensor-Santiago admires for being “very skillful at keeping himself hidden in the shadows,” and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chair Francis Tolentino whose campaign against billboards has merited the senator’s approval.

And who could forget Beatriz Cristina Aboitiz, the woman that Defensor-Santiago scolded for allegedly mocking her during the Estrada impeachment trial. Aboitiz will be among the offerors.

“She’s actually a very cultured person so I buried the hatchet mainly by burying it on my back,” the senator said. Other offerors are Philippine Star editor in chief Isaac Belmonte and his sister, Quezon City Vice Mayor Josefina Belmonte-Alimurung.

Endangered species

Eight other senators are in the wedding entourage—Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, Ramon Revilla Jr., Antonio Trillanes IV, Alan Peter Cayetano, Pia Cayetano, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Edgardo Angara and Loren Legarda.

Revilla and his wife, Cavite Representative Lani Mercado, are themselves celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary this month. Also part of the entourage are ballerina Lisa Macuja-Elizalde, Gemma Cruz-Araneta, Dr. Linnea Defensor-Evangelista and Zenaida Lazaro.

Part of the challenge in assembling politicians of disparate persuasions is how to achieve harmony during that one occasion. But the bride herself doesn’t see a problem.

“I know that these people, although they may be political adversaries, are really civil to each other whenever they meet, both in public and in private so I have no qualms about it,” she said.

“The theme here is we are all endangered species and we have to stay together. All of us,” she said.