To many, the late Miriam Defensor Santiago’s legacy will always be the ‘Iron Lady of Asia’, a woman who will always be remembered for her courage, brilliance, and humor. The dedicated public servant is deemed by many as the greatest president we never had.
For a privileged few, however, she was family.
Back in 2012, in an interview with GMA’s Powerhouse, she opened up her home to host Mel Tiangco. A quick scan of her home was enough to show how well traveled and sentimental the late Senator was. She called her home a “house of memories” where she would entertain family and friends. She proudly gushed that the interior design of her French-Italian home was done by her.
Apart from the warm interiors, it was a space designed to entertain. Being the eldest of seven siblings, she said, she shared how she would often host reunions in her home. “They have to come here because I’m the eldest,” she said in the interview.
Her mother Dimpna Palma-Defensor, a retired College Dean, recalled how much of an achiever her daughter was even early on. “She should study what needs to be studied because she will be tested the next day. She must study what needs to be studied whether she likes it or not,” she recounted.
Learn more about the late Senator’s family in the following pages
Senator Miriam Santiago wed fellow lawyer Narciso ‘Jun’ Santiago in 1971.
“We are very best friends, we are the best confidants. He knows me thoroughly,” she said in an interview with CNN Philippines. “My husband and I are so different from each other that when we got married, we agreed that each would lead a separate life not governed or oppressed by the other just because we got into marriage.”
The late Senator described herself as a demonstrative mother. “I would hug and kiss all the time and my children go running away from me and say, ‘Dad, stop her. She’s manic!” she told Powerhouse.
The suicide of her son AR may have been, by far, the most difficult thing she had to endure as a mother.
screengrab: Youtube
“When you had so much love and you put it so much hope for the future; and you try to bring him up to the best of your abilities and let him imbibe in moral, ethical values and all of the sudden, he’s gone,” she lamented in the interview on Powerhouse, recalling how it made her question her faith. “I’ll never be over the death of my son.”
As for her five grandkids aged 2 to 8 years old, the proud grandma happily shared in the same interivew with CNN that all of them are headed for law school. “They are very, very assertive. I can’t get a word in!”
Miriam Defensor-Santiago was laid to rest on October 2, 2016 at the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina. But her legacy lives on. Though we wish she would rest in peace, we’re certain that she’s chosen to roar into the great beyond, guns blazing, as vibrant and brave as ever.
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