JPE accuses Jamby of cheating in 2004

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile’s quarrel with neophyte Sen. Jamby Madrigal took a turn for the worse yesterday after he insinuated that Madrigal might have cheated her way to victory in the 2004 elections.

Enrile reduced Madrigal to tears during the Senate’s plenary session last Monday by indicating that her father benefited from the brutal Marcos dictatorship.

Their colleagues tried to patch things up but the former Marcos defense minister didn’t seem keen about it — at least for the moment.

"I think it’s too late in the day. I tolerated her too long, OK," he told a press conference yesterday. "Let her do the act. I will dance according to the tune that she wants."

Enrile also issued a warning against picking a fight with him. "I never provoke anybody to any intellectual or legal battle but if they challenge me, they are welcome to it at their own peril."

In a direct attack on Madrigal, Enrile said he and Salvador Escudero once overheard Madrigal negotiating with someone during a sortie in Gumaca, Quezon, during the 2004 elections in which they were then opposition partymates.

"Both Sonny Escudero and I overheard her bargaining with somebody through her cell phone. In fact, to quote her words, ‘Name the price, as long as I am within the first five.’ This is my personal knowledge. Let her deny it."

Ratcheting up the hostility, Enrile added he already has possession of affidavits of individuals willing to testify on the alleged cheating but he would reveal them "at the proper time" and "at the proper forum."

Madrigal refused to face reporters yesterday seeking comment but issued a statement.

"I will not engage in a personal debate with Senator Enrile. He makes all issues too personal, particularly martial law and San Jose Timber," she said, referring to an Enrile-owned logging company.

"I continue to respect him because of his advanced age. My conscience is clear and I hope that history will be kind to him. I pray for his enlightenment."

Enrile admitted becoming upset with Madrigal for initiating an inquiry on the logging concession of San Jose Timber Corp. in Leyte.

Then environment secretary Michael Defensor, now President Arroyo’s chief of staff, approved the company’s license, which covers nearly 96,000 hectares.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources also extended the company’s logging permit by another 16 years and three months, or up to 2021.

"At least if she was not really picking a fight with me, she could have inhibited herself, being my former teammate in the senatorial campaign and let others investigate the case if the intention was only to bring out the facts," Enrile told the press conference.

Turning the tables on Madrigal, Enrile said the neophyte lawmaker herself became "too personal" when she questioned Defensor’s 2005 appointment to the environment department.

Madrigal tried to block Defensor’s appointment following a statement from the latter that mining companies owned by the Madrigals could be held liable for illegal logging activities in the past.

In a verbal clash last Monday, Madrigal burst into tears after Enrile insinuated during a plenary discussion that her father enjoyed smooth ties with the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos at the height of martial law.

Madrigal was stung when Enrile said he recalled that her parents, Antonio and Amanda Madrigal, partied with Marcos and his flamboyant wife, Imelda, at the presidential palace. Madrigal’s father, now 87, was then an influential business figure.

"They were partying with the Marcoses, including her uncle — the husband of her aunt — Chito Madrigal," Enrile said.

He made it clear to reporters later that he did not accuse the Madrigals of amassing wealth illegally during the dictatorship but only said that Madrigal’s parents "partied" with the Marcoses.

The Marcoses’ parties were fabled for their extravagance and they later became one of the lasting images of excess during a nation’s slow descent into wrenching poverty.

At that point, Madrigal tried to interrupt Enrile but he pressed on, saying he would "begrudge anybody to stand in this forum and pretend to be a champion of magnitude and show disgust (with) martial law if, indeed, the person did not benefit from martial law."

As though playing out a scene from a television soap opera, Madrigal sobbed when she returned to her seat after the heated exchange.

Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Jinggoy Estrada, Mar Roxas, Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada went over to comfort her while Enrile looked on from his desk unrepentant.

Senate President Franklin Drilon suspended and eventually adjourned the session to prevent the hostility from escalating.

Madrigal told reporters later she was hurt by the insinuation that her father, recuperating from a stroke, benefited from the Marcos dictatorship which stifled dissent with an iron-fist.

She maintained that her family’s business was persecuted by Marcos.

Marcos’s eldest daughter, Ilocos Norte Rep. Imee Marcos, said the Madrigals enjoyed a cozy relationship with her parents.

"I don’t remember (Enrile) saying anything about the Madrigals enriching themselves under my dad," she said in a statement sent by mobile phone to The STAR.

"Why did Jamby react? What everyone knows is that her mom was a ‘Blue Lady’ while her dad, aunts and the rest of their family were very often in Malacañang. Only Jamby seems to have forgotten. Dapat magpaka-totoo siya. (She should be honest about it.) Hello!"

Imelda Marcos’s close associates were known as "Blue Ladies" and they were often with her, including in Imelda’s shopping sprees abroad.

Last Monday’s quarrel started when Madrigal made a motion to have Enrile’s "unparliamentary remarks" about her privilege speech stricken from the Senate’s record.

Enrile had said that Madrigal was a "purveyor of falsehood" following her privilege speech last week in which she criticized President Arroyo’s declaration of a state of national emergency, which was aimed at thwarting a reported coup.

Madrigal accused Mrs. Arroyo of virtually declaring martial law and noted that Enrile had staged an ambush on his life in 1972 to justify Marcos’s martial rule.

Enrile then played a key role as defense minister, signing arrest and seizure orders. Shortly after Marcos declared martial law on Sept. 21, 1972, Enrile claimed to have survived an ambush on his life.

In February 1986, he and then armed forces vice chief of staff Fidel Ramos broke away from Marcos and staged a mutiny that sparked the People Power revolt that toppled Marcos.

Mrs. Arroyo’s issued the emergency declaration on Feb. 24, eve of the 20th anniversary of that bloodless popular uprising.

Enrile revealed to the public at the height of the revolt that the 1972 ambush was staged.

Last Monday, Enrile told reporters that he lashed out at Madrigal for criticizing him for the staged 1972 ambush. He said it occurred after the martial law declaration.