Former senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago passed away Thursday morning at the age of 71.

Reports indicated that Santiago died in her sleep at the St, Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City at 8:52 a.m.

The public servant from Iloilo was battling lung cancer and was diagnosed with the disease in 2014.

In early September, she was brought to the said hospital for cancer treatment

Santiago was also rushed to the Makati Medical Center late May for pneumonia due to complications from lung cancer.