The Philippine Online Chronicles

With Senator Maria Ana Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal-Valade formally announcing that she is joining the 2010 presidential race, she is clearly making a big leap.

Using the metaphor used by Julius Caesar’s invasion of Ancient Rome, she crossed the Rubicon and vowed to “faithfully serve” the nation. She stated that the country needs change and that she has no intention to settle for a vice presidential candidacy.

Did her decision to run for president bring her to the “point of no return"?

Clan of  rich nation-builders

Known to many as Jamby Madrigal, she was born on April 26, 1958 to Antonio Madrigal and Amanda Abad Santos-Madrigal in Manila. She belongs to a family of nation-builders and public servants, being the granddaughter of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos. Her grand-uncle, Assemblyman Pedro Abad Santos, was the founder of the Socialist Party of the Philippines, while her paternal grandfather, Senator Vicente Madrigal, was elected senator in 1949.

Her aunt, Senator Pacita Madrigal-Gonzales, a senator during the Quezon and Magsaysay administrations, was the first Administrator of the Social Welfare Administration (predecessor of today’s Department of Social Welfare and Development). Her father and grandfather are members of the rich Spanish-Visayan Madrigal family. Her late uncle and aunt were former Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Manuel Collantes and heiress Consuelo “Chito” Madrigal.

According to a political database, she studied in the Philippines and abroad with unknown degrees. Later on, in December 2002, she married Jean Claude Dudoignon Valade, a French nobleman and businessman.

Advocacy and political journey

According to Senate profiles, before Madrigal entered politics, she headed several foundations that promote child awareness and education. She was the founder of The Books-for-the-Barangay Foundation Inc. (BBFI), which is the lead partner of US-based “Books for the Barrios” organization that provides books and educational materials for Philippine public elementary and secondary schools.

She is also the founder and chairperson of the Abad Santos Madrigal Foundation (ASMF) Inc., which aims to empower women and children through relevant and accessible livelihood programs. The ABLE Foundation, Inc., which she also chairs, has been providing scholarships to poor deserving youth.

Aside from her numerous foundations, she became the spokesperson for the youth-based Kontra Pulitika Movement (KPM). It champions education, protection of the environment and economic empowerment through livelihood programs.

During the Estrada administration, she served as the head of the Office of the Presidential Adviser for Children’s Affairs. She organized the First National Summit for Children in 2000, where a declaration of commitment was made upholding Child 21, a framework anchored on action plans and strategies related to children. This declaration was the first in Southeast Asia, a prelude to the United Nations’ World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children.

Currently, she is an elected Senator and the Chairperson of the Senate Committees on Environment; Youth, Women and Family Relations; Peace, Unification and Reconciliation; and Cultural Communities.

She has filed bills in the areas of education, women and youth, gender equality, juvenile justice, empowerment, anti-trafficking and anti-pornography, and indigenous people and their ancestral domain, as well as for the protection and conservation of the environment. She likewise sponsored bills advancing national economic interests, such as repealing the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998, placing LPG under price control, recovering government shares in Petron, and inquiring into the Malampaya Project.

Recently, she filed a bill repealing RA 7942 or the Mining Act of 1995, and filed a bill for imposition of total log ban in the country. Both bills aim to protect our national resources from plunder and exploitation.

As a staunch administration critic, the Senator became closely allied with the late Anakpawis Rep. Crispin "Ka Bel" Beltran. She said in a report, “Ka Bel is special to me because there are a few people who have his conviction...That is why when he died, I went with his hearse and stood for four hours in a truck which carried his remains from Commonwealth (Avenue in Quezon City) to his final resting place in Bulacan. That day I told myself this is the least tribute I can pay a man who fought the Marcos dictatorship and who really lived his ideals. I cried and was touched that many people lined the streets and gave the clenched fist salute.”

From Inheritance to C5 controversies

Both family and political controversies have haunted Madrigal’s life.

In the early quarter of 2009, she was gearing up for a “long and bitter” court battle for the fortune left behind by her aunt, the late Consuelo “Chito” Madrigal-Collantes, regarded as one of the Philippines’ wealthiest women.

It started when she questioned the validity of her aunt’s last will and testament that the latter purportedly executed and signed in September 2006. She contested the distribution of the inheritance which she believed should be implemented lawfully.

The senator was reportedly left out of the inheritance because she had already received her share in the form of campaign contributions from her aunt that helped her get elected in 2004.

Madrigal says that the inheritance tussle will make “a nice telenovela.” Collantes died in her North Forbes Park residence in Makati City on March 24 at the age of 86. Aside from her husband, former Foreign Minister Manuel Collantes, the childless Collantes was said to have left chunks of her fortune to Jamby’s elder sister Susana Madrigal, adopted son Gustav Warns, and niece Gizela Gonzalez-Montinola.

Another “nice telenovela-cum-corruption-buster” controversy had consumed Senator Madrigal early this year. She charged Senator Manny Villar, another Presidential aspirant, with abusing his authority to push for and fund the realignment of the C-5 extension road through a double insertion of P200 million in the 2008 annual appropriations.

She alleged that Villar used his position for the P400-million insertions to pour millions into his real estate company’s subdivision projects. Villar, a real estate businessman before entering politics, founded a group of companies that include Adelfa Properties Inc. and Golden Haven Memorial Park Inc.

The new C-5 extension road project, which would connect the metropolitan cities of Las Piñas to Parañaque, would traverse 85 hectares of properties owned by Adelfa Properties and Golden Haven.

Madrigal claimed that, as of October 2008, the government has already paid P136 million to the companies linked to Villar, while another P84 million was due last November 2008.

The C-5 extension road project was initially conceptualized in 1996 as the Manila-Cavite-Toll Expressway Project, which would connect the SLEX to Coastal road. However, in 1998, Madrigal alleged that Amvel Land Development Corp., SM Holdings Properties, and Villar’s Adelfa Properties Inc. sought for the realignment of the entry and exit ramps of the C-5 interchange. She furthered that because of the realignment, the government wasted P1.8 billion already paid for the original design of the road right-of-way.

She based her claim on a 1998 letter signed by Mariano “Bro. Mike” Velarde, president of the Amvel Land Development Corp., Engr. Filemon Avelino of SM Prime Holdings, and Anastacio Adriano of Adelfa Properties Inc., addressed to the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB).

In 2001, Villar and his wife, Rep. Cynthia Villar, allegedly proposed the development of the road connecting Quirino Avenue to Sucat Road to DPWH. The road is two kilometers long, with civil works and road right-of-way amounting to P700 million.

During that time, Villar was head of the Senate finance committee.

This controversy led to senate inquiries and a case filed with the Office of the Ombudsman. She even exchanged heated words with fellow politicians and was tagged the “kuryente queen” supposedly because of these allegations.

New Vision for the Filipino Nation

Determined to pull off a one-woman show in her presidential bid, Madrigal is running as an independent candidate. She wants to prove that she is not a traditional presidential aspirant, but "a candidate of the people."

With the campaign slogan "Bayan Natin, Bago ang Lahat," she will run without a vice president and a senatorial slate, to "allow all like-minded candidates and people to unite under a shared and genuine progressive vision and platform of government based on principled politics."

Moreover, she said that she wants to go on a solo presidential campaign so as not to be indebted to any party or big businessmen who fuel the machinery of other candidates.

She pledged to fight to realize the goal of a new vision for the Filipino Nation "as an innovator of social justice and advocate of social policies that will benefit the majority instead of economic and political oligarchy." These ten goals are summarized as follows:

• Genuine and pro-Filipino industrialization and nationalist economy;
• Fair and equitable trade and debt;
• Local people’s control and anti-monopoly cartel policy;
• Genuine agrarian reform;
• Genuine, adequate, pro-Filipino protection and rehabilitation of the environment;
• Fair, equitable, nationalist-treatment and empowerment of OFWs and migrants and adequate living standards for all Filipinos;
• Truly nationalist, pro-Filipino and pro-people government;
• Truly nationalist, independent and pro human rights Philippine security and peace;
• Selfless government service free from corruption, patronage, conflict of interest, and profiteering from government office; and
• Genuine equality, empowerment, and dignity of women.

Specifically, she will prioritize abrogating the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA). For the needs of the different sectors, she commits to undertake necessary tasks for genuine change, such as rechanneling foreign debt service to public education, raising the salaries of teacher and government employees, legislating a P125 wage increase for workers, and genuine agrarian reform. 

No chance at all?

Despite her dismal showing in the latest surveys by private polling firms Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia, Madrigal was not bothered. She told that she had her “own political surveys done with a methodology that is transparent and unbiased.”

According to a recent SWS survey, among the candidates ranked at the bottom, Madrigal and independent John Carlos “JC” de los Reyes were tied at the bottom at 0.4 percent each, up from their previous 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively. The latest Pulse Asia pre-election survey and a survey by the Issues and Advocacy Center both did not disclose the ratings of Madrigal.

Meanwhile, in an opinion survey conducted by the Philippine Star, there were different reactions to Madrigal’s decision to run for president and her chances of winning. Some of them viewed it as her right to join the presidential race and some even thought that it would further divide the divided opposition.

Some opined that her presidential bid would add fun to the 2010 elections. One reaction said that she is "just another Eli Pamatong and Eddie Gil;" just a female version. Another even added that there will be “a lot of clowns in Circus 2010.”

For more information on Jamby Madrigal, visit the following sites:

Official Website

Political Arena
GMA News
Facebook page
Twitter

Blog
Scribd
Youtube

Photos from Jamby Madrigal's official Facebook page.