Miriam Defensor Santiago

Who is Miriam Defensor Santiago?

Miriam Defensor Santiago is a Judge of the International Criminal Court and a member of the Senate of the Philippines. She is a lawyer, former trial judge, and lecturer on constitutional and international law. She served as the Commissioner of the Philippine Bureau of Immigration and Deportation in 1988 and the Secretary of the Philippines' Department of Agrarian Reform from 1989 to 1991. She is the founder and current leader of the center-right People's Reform Party formerly allied with former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during the 2004 elections, and is a recipient of "the Asian Nobel Prize" — the Ramon Magsaysay Award given by the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation — for government service; she was cited "for bold and moral leadership in cleaning up a graft-ridden government agency" during her tenure as the head of the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation.

Defensor Santiago ran for President of the Philippines in 1992; she led the nationwide canvassing of votes for a few days, but was defeated by a margin of less than several hundred thousand votes. The campaign was reportedly marred by widespread election fraud, notably power blackouts after the first five days. She filed an electoral protest, which was dismissed in 1995 when she ran for and won a seat in the Philippine Senate.