WHEN she came to power after the People Power Revolution of February 1986, President Cory Aquino appointed Miriam Defensor-Santiago as the Commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID). The BID was one of the most corrupt and (literally) dirtiest government offices in the land. I was then a young reporter for the Observer magazine and I was assigned to interview her. I was waiting in the press room when a director of the BID ran out of the commissioner's office, straight to where the reporters sat, screaming, 'She threw a chair at me.'

I was young and agile, and ran to the room of Commissioner Santiago. I knocked on the door, someone inside calmly said, 'Come in,' and I entered. I asked the commissioner what happened. Cool as seawater she said to me, 'Danton, please sit down. You know, this woman was trying to bribe me. She said if I just kept quiet about the corruption in this office, I would get a fat, juicy check as my monthly share of their shenanigans.' She pronounced 'shenanigans' in her patented Ilonggo-Michigan-American accent, and I stopped the impulse to smile.