Angara seeks highest civilian award for Miriam

Senator Sonny Angara has filed a resolution seeking to bestow the highest civilian award, the Quezon Service Cross, on the late Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago.

In a statement Wednesday, two days before Santiago's first death anniversary, Angara said Senate Resolution 517 will be consolidated with the one filed by Senator Grace Poe.

Poe last week filed Senate Resolution 508, urging President Rodrigo Duterte to nominate Santiago for conferment of the award.

The new resolution is expected to be passed unanimously by senators, Angara said.

"As senator, Senator Miriam had bipartisan respect and support, and this resolution in her honor will be passed in the same manner," he said.

"Seriously, she deserves the Quezon Service Cross. Because rare is the Filipino who had served in the judiciary, the Cabinet and legislature, and the rarest is the one who served in all with brilliance and distinction. She was a class of her own," Angara added.

In his resolution, Angara said Santiago "exceeded the qualifications" set for a Quezon Service Cross recipient, of having served "in such a manner and such a degree as to add great prestige to the Republic, or as to contribute to the lasting benefit of its people."

The resolution highlighted the laws Santiago authored, and her achievements as Presiding Judge of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, Immigration Commissioner, and Agrarian Reform Secretary.

Since its creation, only five people have so far been awarded the Quezon Service Cross: Interior Secretary Jesse M. Robredo (November 2012), Sen. Benigno S. Aquino Jr. (August 2004), President Ramon Magsaysay (July 1957), President Emilio Aguinaldo (June 1956) and President Carlos P. Romulo (April 1951).

Santiago passed away on September 29, 2016 after succumbing to cancer. —Jessica Bartolome/KBK/KVD, GMA News