While there is much concern over Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago’s health, there is one other thing not a few Filipino voters are concerned about, and that is her choice of running mate, namely Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos.
Days after she confirmed a third presidential run, a letter from Dr. Sylvia Estrada Claudio circulated on social media asking the senator to disclose her medical records if only to confirm her claim that she is physically able to endure the rigors not only of the campaign but also of a six-year term if she wins.
The senator flatly rejected the doctor’s appeal and referred her to St. Luke’s Global Medical Center in Makati City for verification of her medical records.
“I’ll abide by the rules of the hospital, but you know in our Civil Code and Criminal Code, a lawyer cannot force a patient to disclose in court his or her relationship with the doctor. All of these are covered by private human rights,” Santiago said.
Or rights to privacy for that matter. The good senator isn’t the first public official whose health caught public attention in relation to the election season. Back in 2004, the late senator Raul Roco was forced to abandon his campaign for the presidency due to a terminal illness that eventually claimed his life.
Then-presidential candidate Sen. Benigno Aquino III was also questioned by his fiercest critics about his psychological and mental fitness after records came out regarding his depression in high school that was highlighted by comments from his father, the late Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr.
Sen. Santiago claimed that after a year and a half of treatment, that she had overcome stage 4 cancer, but even she and the best of the doctors don’t know for certain if it would come back.
That said, unless there’s a court order asking her to do so, the senator is right in saying that no one can compel her to disclose her medical records. But again, the concern on Santiago’s health had to do with her running mate, Sen. Marcos, who will be given the presidency in a golden platter if she does succumb to cancer.
For far too long, the country’s young generation of voters had been unfamiliar with the legacy of the Marcos martial law regime, and it doesn’t help that one other presidential candidate, Vice President Jejomar Binay, looked forward to partnering with Marcos despite being a rights lawyer during that dark period.
In choosing Senator Marcos as her veep, Sen. Santiago, who established early on a reputation as a graft buster and a no-nonsense public official, casts questions on how she can escape the legacy of corruption that had tainted the Marcos family for decades long after they left the Palace, only to return to power.
Can the Filipino voters afford to take a chance on Sen. Santiago’s health with the specter of the Marcos family’s return to the Palace hovering ever so closely behind?