Santiago: It’s time for Heart Evangelista’s parents to ‘let her go’

Heart Evangelista and Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – “It’s time for the family to let go of Heart (Evangelista) because she’s 28,” so said Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who considers the actress, her surrogate daughter.

“I think they should just think all of these over and maybe it’s time for the family to let go of Heart because she’s 28, “Santiago said in a phone patch interview with Senate reporters on Thursday, when sought to react on the controversy between the actress and her boyfriend, Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero.

“If she’s not learned anything after all those series of boyfriends that the media has publicized, she’ll never learn it.  I think the best thing to do is let go. She has to learn her lessons her way,” she said.

Santiago said she was “very heart-sick, “very disappointed” and “depressed “because she was hoping that she could have a mother-daughter relationship with Heart. But it seemed she said that the actress was in a “state of rebellion” against her parents.

“I never had a daughter you know so I thought I could have a mother-daughter relationship with her, and I’m very, very disappointed. In fact,   depressed those things have turned out this way. So I’m just going to distance myself from her from now on,” she said.

“Apparently I may have certain professional ability but guidance and counseling is not one of them,’ she added.

In the end, Santiago said, she was glad that she never had a daughter.

“My boys were so much better. Ang hirap pala ng anak na babae. I have brothers and sisters. I’ve dealt with all my siblings but we never had this kind of a problem,” she said.

“I think Heart is in a state of rebellion against her parents.  I don’t know what happened because I wasn’t on the scene. Whatever her parents say, she will immediately do the opposite,” said the senator.

Santiago said she is close not only to Heart but to her family. In fact, she said, Heart’s parents have confided to her their problems on their daughter and Escudero. But she said she was surprised that the parents came out   in the public to talk about the conflict.