Driving Miriam Defensor Santiago

Miriam Defensor Santiago stole the spotlight. Yet again. With a fierce glint in her eyes and signature fiery rhetoric in tow, Miriam approached the lectern and called some Supreme Court Justices ‘earthworms.’ I resisted the urge to stand up and clap. But I couldn’t. This woman has bigger cojones than all of the Supreme Court Justices combined. (This piece was written in 2006 – author)

As I was vegetating on my couch half-drunk and pounding on the channel button every 5 seconds, something instantly grabbed my attention. A crazy lady with big hair and funny accent. Then it dawned to me. Miriam. I knew I had to put the remote control down and marvel at her Miriam-ness. Miriam yelled. Miriam screamed. Miriam exploded. Miriam went berserk.

The Issue: She's been removed from the official list of candidates for the Chief Justice position, which will be vacated in a week or two. She suspected conspiracy and sabotage to boot her out of the list. She said she wasn’t angry, but “irate, furious, ballistic, fuming, foaming at the mouth, hitting the roof, homicidal” and basically enumerated every word synonymous with ‘angry.’ That’s my girl!

“I am humiliated! Debased! Degraded! And not only that, I feel like throwing up to be living my iddle years in a country of this nature!“


With her powerful voice, feisty façade, florid verbiage, and Harvard-meets-Iloilo accent, she pointed a finger at the empty space and screamed “I am nauseated! I spit in the face of Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban and his cohorts in the Supreme Court!”

What is not to love about a woman who looks straight into the camera and utters “gusto kong mangagat ng tao”? (I want to bite someone.) Although we don’t share the the same position on certain issues, I love her still. She’s amazing, she takes my breath away every time she opens that mouth.

I love you Miriam, I’m with you all the way.


(The piece was written in 2006. Photos not author’s own. First photo by TEAM MANILA.)

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