JPE reduces Jamby to tears

As though playing out a scene from a television soap opera, Sen. Jamby Madrigal burst into tears following a spat with Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile who insinuated during yesterday’s plenary discussion that her ailing father had benefited from the Marcos dictatorship.

It all began with Madrigal’s privilege speech last week in which she criticized President Arroyo’s declaration of a state of national emergency.

She went on to equate it with the martial law era, during which Enrile was Ferdinand Marcos’ defense minister. In a swipe at Enrile, Madrigal noted that her colleague in the Senate had faked an ambush on his life in 1972 to justify martial law.

Yesterday’s exchange started shortly after Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan gave the floor to Madrigal, who 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." It was all downhill from there.

Madrigal was stung when Enrile countered that he recalled that her parents, Antonio and Amanda Madrigal, enjoyed good relations with the late dictator.

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

Madrigal’s father was an influential business figure during his day.

At that point, the neophyte senator tried to interrupt Enrile, saying it was not his turn to speak on the Senate floor.

During interpolation, Enrile went on to say 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."

Madrigal broke down after returning to her seat.

Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Jinggoy Estrada, Mar Roxas, Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada went over to comfort her.

Cooler heads prevailed in preventing the exchange from escalating, prompting Senate President Franklin Drilon to suspend and later adjourn the session.

Madrigal told reporters later she was hurt by the insinuation that her father, now 87 and recuperating from a stroke, benefited from the brutal Marcos dictatorship.

"I got hurt because my father is ailing," she said. "My father never took a single centavo from President Marcos," adding that her father’s business was even persecuted during the Marcos era.

"Who made money from Marcos? My father or Enrile?" she continued.

Remaining unrepentant, Enrile told reporters that Madrigal got personal when she criticized him by pointing to his staged 1972 ambush.

"The supposed ambush on my person, suffice it to say, Mr. President, that I will not fake my own ambush to justify martial law. Martial law was already on when the event happened," Enrile told Drilon in the plenary discussion.

Enrile made it clear to reporters 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.

Drilon said he and his colleagues will try to find a way for a reconciliation once the session resumes today.