Life after death, indeed
Because I could not stop for Death —
He kindly stopped for me —
The Carriage held but just Ourselves —
And Immortality.
This stanza from Alice Dickinson’s “I Could not Stop for Death”, blotted in the mind of the Filipino youth’s favorite political icon, Former Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, as narrated by her brother, Benjamin, the former Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. He recalled that Miriam had always uttered these four lines in a number of their conversations, emphasizing it as her favorite poetic stanza. Who would have expected this could sound as if the lines were created just for her?
Because I could not stop for Death —
He kindly stopped for me —
Senator Miriam, the Iron Lady of Asia, has always been known as the fierce, witty and youthful woman in the senate. Apart from this, her sister, Len, described her as a “walking encyclopedia”, who would put five to eight books on her bedside and read them simultaneously. Len narrated how her sister loves to learn that she has put up her own library connected to her room. How she knows so much and was proven by all the degrees she earned starting from 1957 to 2000 as she finished different programs and studied in many schools, local and abroad.
In her colorful years of service from 1995 to 2016, the former senator dealt with handling eight committees, namely, Committee on Foreign Relations, Committee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes, Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Automated Election System, Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on the Overseas Absentee Voting Act, Commission on Appointments, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Legislative Oversight Committee on the Visiting Forces Agreement, Committee on Economic Affairs and Special Oversight Committee on Economic Affairs.
Miriam also claimed the title of being the first Filipino and the first Southeast Asian to be elected as judge of the International Criminal Court by the States Parties to Rome Statute in December 2011 and has lasted a nine-year term.
There were still more achievements she received in her great stay in this world. She never became quiet nor quit in her will to take on the leadership of the Philippines as Miriam believed that the nation deserves a genuine leader–one that is needed by the youth, the one she needed when she was still young.
The Iron Lady of Asia, indeed, was too busy to stop for death, hence, it kindly stopped for her on September 29, 2016 at the age of 71.
The Carriage held but just Ourselves —
And Immortality.
Death came for her in a carriage with a fellow traveller in an eternal journey, Immortality. Miriam closed her eyes in peace with her loving family – who saw her as the most genuine, brave and intelligent woman senator in the Philippines. With her friends around – who appreciate her, not just a politician but as a mentor, a friend they can always lean on behind the fierceness she might have shown while in the four corners of the senate hall. With her supporters, most especially, the youth – who look up to her as a mother who will not shame you for your mistakes, but will help you improve on anything and in whatever means. As an inspiration – the one politician who shared one vision with the youth to change this country in a clean and honest way, the one senator they believed in who could be the beacon of what leadership needs to be.
The former senator might have waved goodbye to the mortal world, but Immortality came with her in the carriage. Thus, in her eternal journey, she is immortalized in this world by commemorating her brilliant existence and excellent deeds and advocacies that will continue to shine as promised by the Youth Reform Movement PH, Inc. and all of us who will forever thank her for being the youth’s voice when nobody heard our little voices.
Because Miriam could not stop for Death —
He kindly stopped for her —
The Carriage held but just Themselves —
And Immortality.
Miriam is forever.
Photo by Amabelle San Pedro/THE FOURTH
