Manila: Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago is suffering from a medical disorder that affects her body’s production of blood cells, doctors said.
The 67-year-old Defensor-Santiago, who is known in the Senate for her feistiness and her witty one-liners, had been suffering from a series of medical conditions in recent years, the latest of which had occurred last week, had been mild stroke after she sustained a burst vein in her eye.
Defensor-Santiago had also been going around in the senate in a neck brace after she suffered a pinched nerve in the neck several years ago.
During her visit on Friday at the Philippine Heart Centre in suburban Quezin City doctors said she has “abnormally low red blood cells and low haemoglobin”.
Defensor-Santiago was quoted as saying in reports: “I am quarantined from certain toxic people, and I am sequestered from political news. I may as well be shot.”
The Senator has been in a middle of a squabble with fellow lawmakers, particularly Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, over the release of a P1.6 million extra fund from senate operational sayings.
Defensor-Santiago had derided Enrile for the perceived selective release of the discretionary allotment.
Defensor-Santiago had been elected judge last year by the International Criminal Court although she has yet to assume her duties for the position.
She is one of the colourful members of the Senate and was a former trial judge.
The Senator would always flaunt her copious knowledge of the law during the impeachment trials of personalities such as former president Joseph Estrada and impeached Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona last year.
