Anne Curtis & Miriam Defensor Santiago: Women on fire

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” — William Congreve, 1697

“A woman is like a tea bag — you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.” — Eleanor Roosevelt                   

Two among the most well-read and intelligent women I admire in the Philippines recently grabbed news headlines and set the Internet aflame with buzz due to their volcanic fury: Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago lobbed bombasts in a privilege speech in the Senate, while 28-year-old actress Anne Curtis figured in a slapping altercation at Prive Luxury Club in The Fort, Taguig City, on Nov. 23.

Miriam on “Febrile Imagination,” Hunger Games & anti-corruption zeal

The grandiloquent Santiago on Dec. 4 lambasted former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile with a litany of charges in vitriolic language, in response to his Nov. 27 speech attacking her. Even a wordsmith like me had to scramble for the dictionary to look up some words, in order to ascertain the exact meanings.

She used colorful and blistering phrases like “voluble on malice,” “psychopathic hypersexualized serial womanizer,” “libertine,” “bluff and bluster,” “rancid genes,” “broken chromosomes,” “a foul caricature of himself,” “the integrity of a hyena and the style of a poison toad,” “febrile imagination,” “asinine” and “oxymoron.” Miriam even cited the new movie  Hunger Games: Catching Fire and its heroine Katniss Everdeen (based on the books of  Suzanne Collins). Wow! 

The first time I had met the famous Miriam was in late 2003 at the wake of her son, when her former student and then Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) president Atty. Joel Cadiz (years later serving as P-Noy’s first Solicitor General) brought me there. That night at the wake, Senator Chiz Escudero came and broke the news that actor Fernando Poe Jr. had that day just decided to run for president.

Whether you like her or not, Miriam is an extraordinary lady. When I went to Senator Santiago’s house at La Vista Subdivision in Quezon City last year for an exclusive interview, I noticed one distinctive feature of her home was her big library, which had orderly bookshelves lined up in rows similar to those in bookshops.

An honor’s graduate of the University of the Philippines (UP) where she became the first female editor of the student newspaper The Philippine Collegian, she also took graduate and other courses at University of Michigan, Harvard Law School and Oxford University.

Even her worst critics cannot deny that Senator Miriam is an intellectual giant and fearless. It is the height of folly for any person to dare raise her ire and scorn.

Although Miriam’s political war with Enrile seems irreconcilable, I hope that other leaders like Erap or P-Noy can mediate a truce between her and former Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson because both of them actually share striking similarities in their courage, principles and crusading zeal against political corruption.

Anne Curtis is rare beauty & brains, reads Marquez & Nabokov

A few years ago when I had a casual chat with the glamorous and beautiful Anne Curtis at lunch, I couldn’t forget she told me that she’s really a bookworm.

In December last year at the GAOC clinic of dentist Dr. Steve Mark Gan in Greenbelt Residences, Makati, Anne told me her favorite books were and I was amazed at the interesting range as well as intellectual depth of her literary choices. Her favorite authors included my idols Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nabokov and Milan Kundera; she also likes the books of Paulo Coelho and Mitch Albom.

Two other famous women I know who are as well-read in books as Miriam and Anne — with equally strong character and passionate personality — are actress/singer Sharon Cuneta Pangilinan and actress/TV host Kris Aquino.

After the altercation involving Anne at Prive, which was reportedly provoked by a prank on her, plus a bit of excess liquor on both sides that led to her slapping actor John Lloyd Cruz and his two other friends, I actually gained two additional reasons to admire the actress even more.

That Nov. 23 incident first came out in the news with a Dec. 1 report by Summit Media’s PEP online showbiz site, and on the same day, Dec. 1 at 10:06 p.m., Anne immediately owned up to her mistake, apologizing to all involved and to the public through her Twitter account, which has  5,745,645 followers.

Swift apology is a sign of maturity, honesty & humility

Her handling of this incident showed that Anne Curtis is not only beautiful and smart, she’s also honest and humble — unlike not a few of our political leaders and other bigwigs in Philippine society who inexplicably diminish their credibility by often stubbornly denying reality and refusing to apologize for obvious shortcomings.

Her act is a good example for all of us non-celebrities — and also for leaders in our society — to emulate. Anne showed us that even the most admired celebrities are only humans with their failings. More importantly, she showed us that an honest and swift apology is a good way to have the last word.

My unsolicited advice on how to avoid an Anne Curtis mistake: Don’t drink too much liquor (especially this Christmas season) and don’t ever let somebody else’s wrong behavior define your self-worth; let it only define theirs!

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