Three days after her surprise declaration, Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago made official her presidential bid in the 2016 elections by filing her certificate of candidacy on Friday afternoon, October 16.
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Santiago, who was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer past year, said she is 100 percent sure of running for president, adding she can only be stopped if she is struck again by cancer.
Though the lessons of martial law should not be forgotten, she said that Sen. “It was not the case that President Marcos, the father, told all the Marcoses to come together and they decided jointly to conduct certain activities that were later viewed with disinterest or were criticized by other Filipinos”, Santiago told reporters.
“What they were doing were, in their ideas, in the best interest of the Filipino people”, she said, adding that like many Filipinos at the time, she also “did not mind the imposition of martial law” because it instilled discipline and public order.
Santiago also said she would not oppose proposals to bury former president Ferdinand Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani if that is the consensus. Juan Ponce Enrile’s recent endorsement of the candidacy of Sen.
Santiago even defended the Marcoses, saying that the decision of the late President Marcos for the country was not of the whole family. I myself have no objection. He was a guerrilla captain. Society leaders have urged me to seek the presidency. “We should let go of the past”.
Santiago drew a large crowd of admirers, who laughed and applauded as she cracked jokes.
Asked if she can withstand the rigors of the campaign, the senator who has more than 3 million likes on Facebook, said she would campaign online to woo the votes of the young.
Santiago will run under her own People’s Reform Party (PRP) that was established when she first run for president in 1992 and lost to Fidel V. Ramos.
The senator, who has suffered from cancer will run for president independently. Francisco Tatad as her partner, but lost to Joseph Estrada.
She said her third try for the top post would be a “charm”, likening it when her husband asked her to marry her for the third time and she answered yes.
During the campaign, Santiago said she would rely on social media, which she said is becoming “more powerful” today.
She later said she would run for president since her doctors had cleared her of the illness.
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“There is now the social media. The internet has radically revolutionized the way young people think and how they affect their own families, their parents, siblings and the people who live with them”, she added.
