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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Miriam taken to Makati Med ICU

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SENATOR Miriam Defensor Santiago, who was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer, was transfered  Tuesday  night to the Intensive Care Unit at the Makati Medical Center.

A statement released by her office said the senator was rushed by ambulance  on Monday  due to complications from her lung cancer.

Narciso Santiago said his wife “is bearing well with her trademark sense of humor.”

“Miriam said that she thanks all her family, friends, supporters, fans, and others who helped pray for her recovery and sent their well-wishes on Facebook,” the senator’s husband said.

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago

He noted that visitors are not allowed and that gifts such as flowers will not be accepted.

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The senator earlier wrote a letter to Senate President Franklin Drilon and asked for an extension of her medical leave.” The senator said she is “physically and mentally weak” due to a side effect of her cancer medication.

Santiago, who ran for president in May 9 elections under her own People’s Reform Party, said one of her medications has produced a side effect of anorexia or the inability to eat and that has rendered her physically and mentally weak.

During the presidential debate last March, Santiago, who earlier said she has licked her cancerous cells, failed to attend the event, saying she was accepted as fit to undergo a clinical trial for a new, unnamed anti-cancer pill.

Santiago also said she joined the international clinical trial to gain free access to the medication, which would otherwise be too expensive.

She said the trial requires her to report for outpatient radiation treatment at the hospital daily for a short period.

In July 2014, Santiago surprised the public after announcing she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer although she already had difficulty breathing.

Santiago divulged she has been under treatment by her correspondent doctor, Dr. Mark Kris, an oncologist who serves as chief of the Thoracic Oncology Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Due to her precarious health, Santiago also stepped down as an elected judge of the International Criminal Court last June. She was supposed to be the first Filipino and first Asian from a developing country to sit in a tribunal that tries cases of genocides, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

She also went on a medical leave from the Senate as she underwent treatment, which included the use of a “miracle drug.”

But she assured the public on various occasions she might consider running for president if she would be able to lick her cancer.

When she filed her Certificate of Candidacy for president in October last year, the senator said she had gone over the hump of the disease although admitting she still has the lingering “cancer symptoms” like her crackling and soft voice.

Despite being afflicted with cancer, the senator has delivered speeches in several universities around the country, banking on her popularity among the youth to buoy her presidential bid.

In all her campus speeches, Santiago urged millennial voters to vote for candidates with academic, professional, and moral excellence. She also asked the youth to campaign for her, recalling the massive impact of youth volunteers in her 1992 run.

The cancer-stricken Santiago occasionally participates in Senate work, but mostly remains in her La Vista home, where she has produced two best-selling joke books and the latest 2015 editions of over two dozen law books.

Santiago is set to end her Senate stint on  June 30  as the consistent top-performer during her three terms.

She was senator from 1995 to 2001 and from 2004 to 2010. She was reelected in 2010 and was prevented by law from running for another term in 2016.

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