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[av_heading heading=’Why the youth love Miriam’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY RHICK LARS VLADIMER ALBAY
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I WAS in high school when I first got to see the formidable Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago in person. Steely and regal in her actions, but with smiling eyes that betrayed a softer and warmer side, Miriam and her signature bellow filled the entire auditorium of the University of the Philippines Visayas, her alma mater.
Even then she could command a room — make crowds erupt into laughter in one moment, then inspire and empower them in another. She was tired of the usual scholarly sermons, she said, proceeding to drop a few offhand jokes and the pick-up lines that her fans have come to expect of her today.
This is why the young feel a familial respect for the feisty senator: because she knew how to talk to us person to person and showed genuine interest in hearing the voice of the youth — her biting wit and snappy one-liners were just added bonus. Unlike her peers who offer condescension and tokenism to us, Miriam actually listened and spoke to young crowds as her equals.
Her soft spot for the youth goes way back to the time of the Ferdinand Marcos regime. As an RTC judge in Metro Manila, Miriam issued probably the first court decision to rule against martial law. Ordering the release of a large group of UP and Ateneo student activists who were wrongly detained and deprived of bail after apprehended organizing a rally against the Marcoses, proving she was on the side of fairness.
On the morning of her passing, on Wednesday, millions of people, young and old, rushed to social media to express mourning — the nation had lost one of its icons.
The Iron Lady of Asia, the Dragon Lady, the Woman who ate death threats for breakfast, the Best President We Never had¬ — her list of honorifics goes on and on. A decorated stateswoman, one of the few who has served in all three branches of the Philippine government, author of the most number of bills and laws in our country’s history, yet she remained grounded, humble, and on the side of justice and equality.
“I have no illusions for myself, about my life, about leaving a legacy, or making a mark in people’s lives. We are so insignificant. We are here only for a blink,” she wrote in the sequel to her bestselling book Stupid is Forever.
Miriam and her “magic” has inspired entire generations to be snappy and uncompromising, teaching us to never back down in the face of adversity, always standing for what is rightfully just — and we’ll never forget that.
To quote from her own last words, stepping down as Agrarian Reform secretary: “This is goodbye. I shall not importune you any longer. I shall fade into the night like Batman.”
Every time there’s a dead-eyed politician grandstanding during a Senate hearing and there’s no Miriam Defensor-Santiago to verbally reduce them to rubble, we’ll sigh and miss you senator.
We’d gladly invoke the higher powers and barter Enrile to the grim reaper just to have you back, but you’re probably already happier where you are now: trading barbs and backhanded compliments with God, filling the sky with your boisterous laughter.
Farewell, madam senator./PN
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