PRESIDENTIAL candidate Miriam Defensor Santiago, who earlier said she had licked her cancerous cells, on Thursday said she could not attend Sunday’s presidential debate in Cebu after she was accepted as fit to undergo a clinical trial for a new and unnamed anti-cancer pill.
In June 2014, Santiago announced she had been diagnosed with Stage-4 lung cancer and then went on a medical leave from the Senate as she underwent treatment, which included the use of a “miracle drug.”
And when she filed her Certificate of Candidacy for president in October last year the senator said she had gone over the hump, although she still had lingering “cancer symptoms.”
In a statement she issued on Thursday, Santiago said she joined the international clinical trial to gain free access to the medication, which otherwise would have cost her half-a-million pesos every three weeks.
She said the trial required her to report for outpatient radiation treatment at the hospital daily for a short period.
The senator, whose term ends in June 2016, said she would try and participate in the third and last presidential debate if the ongoing treatments did not inhibit her.
“I am very sorry to miss out on the debates, but it would be a disservice to the country if I forwent the opportunity to get rid of my cancer completely and strengthen myself further to serve the Filipino people,” Santiago said.
Santiago attended the first presidential debate in Cagayan de Oro City last month, where she said her only purpose in seeking the presidency was to spend the rest of her life running after the corrupt.
Despite her cancer, the feisty senator has delivered speeches in several universities around the country, banking on her popularity among the youth to boost her presidential bid.
In all her campus speeches, Santiago urged the voters to vote for candidates with academic, professional and moral excellence. She also asked the youth to campaign for her, recalling the massive impact of the youth volunteers in her 1992 run.