SANTIAGO
“I ACCEPT this. I do not want to do anything heroic.”
These were the last words of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago to her husband, Nicanor “Jun” Santiago, on the last day she was still conscious before she succumbed to lung cancer stage 4 early morning Thursday at the St. Luke’s-Global.
He said the family had no plans to cremate her.
Santiago said Miriam became unconscious for several days in the hospital. She had enrolled in various clinical trials for treatment of lung cancer for two years, but to no avail.
“She died peacefully in her sleep. That is all I want to remember,” said the grieving Mr. Santiago.
But he said the outpouring of recognition and love for Miriam should have been done while she was still alive.
Mr. Santiago turned sentimental when he was approached by the media on his way to the venue of the late senator’s wake at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral Grottos in Cubao, Quezon City.
“’Yung pagmamahal at pagpuri sa kanya sana nagawa nung buhay pa siya,” he told reporters past noon yesterday.
He said that like President Rodrigo Duterte, his wife devoted most of her life to public service.