{"id":81589,"date":"2016-09-29T03:27:23","date_gmt":"2016-09-29T07:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=81589"},"modified":"2016-09-29T03:27:23","modified_gmt":"2016-09-29T07:27:23","slug":"senators-mourn-death-sen-santiago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/09\/29\/senators-mourn-death-sen-santiago\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators mourn death of Sen. Santiago"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The Flag at the Senate Building in Pasay City is flown at half-mast to mourn the death of former Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, one of the country’s greatest lawmakers. Santiago died Thursday morning after battling lung cancer. She was 71. (Photo: Jess Escaros Jr.\/PNA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2013 Senators were saddened by the death of former Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago who had been battling lung cancer for almost three years.<\/p>\n

According to the official Twitter account of Santiago managed by her relatives, the feisty senator died peacefully at 8:52 a.m. She was 71 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am saddened to know that Miriam will now be debating with a much Greater Body than the Philippine Senate,\u201d Senate Majority Leader Vicente \u201cTito\u201d Sotto III said in his official Twitter account.<\/p>\n

Senator Juan Edgardo \u201cSonny\u201d Angara thanked her for the \u201cmany years of courageous service to the nation\u201d and noted that she would surely be missed.<\/p>\n

Neophyte senator Joel Villanueva said that her death was \u201ca very sad day for the Philippines.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said that he was out of words to express his gratitude for the \u201cselfless\u201d work she has done for the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy thoughts and prayers are with the Santiago family during this extremely difficult time. Rest in peace, Senator Miriam,\u201d Villanueva said.<\/p>\n

Senator Gregorio \u201cGringo\u201d Honasan II said that Santiago will leave behind \u201cfootprints in our public lives that will be hard to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

He further said that the lady senator has set the bar higher for public service in terms of competence, dedication and courage.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe belongs to history and future generations of Filipino citizens and leaders,\u201d Honasan said.<\/p>\n

Senator Nancy Binay enumerated the many positions held by Santiago including her being a trial judge, immigration commissioner, agrarian reform secretary, and senator.<\/p>\n

She said that she was one of those who would \u201cstop and listen to the wise words she would say in the Senate sessions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that Sen. Miriam would be ready with her witty lines and feisty attitude. Sen. Miriam \u2013 a brilliant legal mind, a loving wife and mother, and a public servant \u2013 would be missed,\u201d Binay said.<\/p>\n

Senator Grace Poe, Chair of the Committee on Public Information and Mass Media, paused the hearing on the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill for a minute to pray for the late senator.<\/p>\n

Poe also recalled how she had \u201csleepless nights\u201d expecting the feisty Santiago to interpellate her when she was still a neophyte senator about to deliver a privilege speech on the FOI bill.<\/p>\n

She meanwhile expressed hope that the measure be passed into a law in memory of her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013 Senators were saddened by the death of former Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago who had been battling lung cancer for …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":81591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,16,95],"tags":[7065,3251,12353],"class_list":["post-81589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-santiago","tag-senate","tag-senator-santiago","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippines-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}