By Leila B. Salaverria | Inquirer
After earning the top spot in a recent Inquirer online poll on netizens’ choice of graduation speaker, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago took another coveted title.
Santiago, also called Asia’s Iron Lady, has beaten her colleagues by having the biggest number of supporters on social media among senators, according to a statement from her office.
Her followers on Facebook and Twitter have reportedly doubled this year compared to last year.
At present, more than 2.6 million are following Santiago on her official Facebook page, or double the number in March last year.
Her Twitter account also has 1.348 million followers, more than double the 649,000 she had in the same period last year.
Witty quotes
Just how popular is Santiago among netizens?
This post of hers on Facebook in March last year generated 307,062 likes and 37,970 shares: “Handbags? I don’t like them at all because they occupy my hands. My hands always have to be ready, in case I need to slap somebody.”
But her tweets on the 2016 presidential elections, corruption in the government elicited the most retweets and favorites.
Her tweet, “In the 2016 presidential elections, when I am rid of my lung cancer, I intend to claim the presidency I won in 1992,” recorded 1,140 retweets and 1,751 favorites.
Posted in September, this tweet, “Every time I hear news on corruption, I want to become president of this feckless country,” generated 1,259 retweets and 1,541 favorites.
And this tweet, “For all those jerks in government who are my enemies, they are the reason why God created the middle finger,” recorded 1,841 retweets and 1,763 favorites.
Santiago’s fearless statements and witty one-liners have also made her the runaway “dream graduation speaker” in a weeklong Inquirer online poll on social media. The participants said she could give them insights into the complexity of life while dropping punch lines on the side.
‘Stupid’ book
Santiago’s winning wisecracks have materialized into a book of joke collections, which was released in December.
The book, titled “Stupid Is Forever,” was published by ABS-CBN Publishing Inc. and remains on top of National Book Store’s list of best-selling books by Filipino authors.
During her book launching, Santiago thanked the “the millions of stupid people in the Philippines” who inspired the volume of funny quotes and shared her views on the burning issues of the day.
More recently, she thanked the graduating students of 2015 for choosing her as the top commencement speaker in the Inquirer online poll.
“I pray for strength so that I may meet you all,” she said.
Santiago, who is suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome, is on medical leave from the Senate. Last year, she announced that she was also battling Stage 4 lung cancer.
Despite the setback, she has filed the biggest number of bills and resolutions in the 16th Congress as of the end of 2014. She has also presided over public hearings of the Senate committees on constitutional amendments and foreign relations.
The rest of the pack
The only government official who has more followers than Santiago on his official social media accounts is President Aquino.
Aquino has 4.16 million likes on his official Facebook page as of Saturday, and has 2.5 million followers on Twitter.
Ranking next to Santiago among senators in the number of Facebook followers is Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, who has more than 544,000 as of Saturday. Sen. Francis Escudero is next with more than 491,000 likes, Sen. Antonio Trillanes with more than 401,000 and Sen. Cynthia Villar with more than 300,000 likes.
On Twitter, Sen. Pia Cayetano has the biggest number of followers after Santiago, with more than 360,000. She is followed by Escudero with more than 220,000, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. with more than 193,000 and Sen. Sonny Angara with more than 63,000.
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