Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago was elected as Judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the elections held in New York on December 12, 2011.
Santiago topped the first round of elections getting 79 out of 104 valid votes, more than the two-thirds of the votes a candidate needs to be elected.
Out of 18 candidates vying for 6 seats, Santiago was the first to be elected. She gained the support of States Parties for her expertise in international law and experience as a trial court judge.
"Indeed, it is a new day for the Philippines, a day of pride for our country and a day of honor, knowing that this is a tremendous responsibility and mandate placed upon our compatriot,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said in a statement.
Santiago's election as Judge of the ICC makes her the first female judge from a developing country in Asia to become so.
It was a four-month campaign and run-up to the elections, the senator was seen as a symbol of women empowerment.
Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago was a Bachelor of Laws cum laude of the University of the Philippines. She earned the titles Master of Laws and Doctor of Laws from the University of Michigan. She attended Summer Program for Lawyers at Harvard Law School in 1996 and the Summer Program in Law at Oxford University in 1997. She wrote and published her own law and political science textbooks in 2002.
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