Patroness

What was that all about?

Senator Jamby Madrigal sought permission from the Senate to travel to a few other cities in Europe, then materialized in the company of aging Filipino communists lounging around in Utrecht. There, according to her own (and the CPP’s) public relations machine, she issued some sort of "commu-niqué."

In what capacity she signed such a document and whatever the diplomatic effect of such a bizarre event might be good questions to ask examinees in the foreign service exams. But that might only serve to torment the poor souls seeking a career in diplomacy.

Some wit did say that every senator is a republic unto himself. Madrigal appears to have taken that quip a bit too seriously.

Communiques are issued ex officio, by persons duly designated to speak for the negotiating parties. These are statements of record for reference in some future occasion either as a precedent or as a diplomatic commitment.

Jose Ma. Sison, as we know, is a bit of a megalomaniac. Every minor opportunity he invests with unwarranted pomp. Someone comes in for a brief afternoon chat, he proceeds to issue a "communiqué." His visitors, after all, are few and far in between.

Madrigal ought to have known better than agreeing to sign a pompous document that says basically nothing. But the lure of publicity and some contrived sense of importance often lure us out of the realm of propriety.

Reports have it that Madrigal did not only meet with the CPP-Utrecht faction, she also funded Satur Ocampo’s trip to Europe at the same time that she was romping around the Old World. Being in the neighborhood, there must be great incentive for Ocampo to visit his old friends who have chosen the comforts of self-exile – although in a quieter fashion.

Imelda Marcos once upon a time enjoyed the informal title "Patroness of the Arts" for throwing money at starving artists. Jamby Madrigal might now be known as "Patroness of Leftists Aching to Junket."

I am almost sure the Senate’s version of the "Crying Lady" has been more generous to her newfound leftist friends than she might be ready to publicly admit. These leftist are very good at fawning over people with money – especially oligarchic money.

After that cruel clash with Juan Ponce Enrile at the Senate, Madrigal might be momentarily vulnerable to people who are always ready to lavish her with cynical adulation. That, I can imagine, is more potent therapy than shopping wildly in Paris.

The Justice Secretary, who always seems to lack a sense of humor, is fuming over the senator’s dangerous liaisons with the communists. He has produced Madrigal’s letter to outgoing Senate President Franklin Drilon seeking permission to travel to Europe. The itinerary she declared that letter did not include going to Utrecht to bond with the last of the world’s Maoists.

Drilon, ever the gallant gentleman especially to his political friends, tried very hard to downplay Madrigal’s latest escapade. He says that senators have the right to meet with all Filipinos, wherever they might be. That ostensibly includes unauthorized casual meetings with sworn enemies of the state, people who have been categorized as "international terrorists" by governments we consider allies of long standing.

The Justice Secretary is not appeased. The senator obviously gave the Senate the slip. She concealed the real purpose of her travel from those who ought to be exercising authority over this chamber. Either the Senate take her to task for this or another item will be added to the indictment of this chamber as a totally inutile appendage of government.

It will definitely reinforce the perception that Drilon’s episode of leadership over this chamber has been appallingly ineffectual.

Enrile’s reaction to the incident had a larger dose of statesmanship. He wants to inquire into whether Madrigal’s publicity gimmick had adverse implications for the Republic’s security. More bluntly, he wants to know if his footloose colleague has become part of a seditious conspiracy.

Even as we might want to simply discard this latest Madrigal gimmick as just another one of those perilous incidents a grandstanding Senate is prone to, it does set an unhealthy precedent for more irresponsibility later on.

We do have an elaborate infrastructure for dealing with that pesky Maoist insurgency. Apart from the security apparatuses of government, we have a Peace Commission and a Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process that orchestrates the Republic’s effort to seek a negotiated settlement with the armed movements.

All other public officials who found it worth their time to visit the NDF Zoo in Utrecht, notably House Speaker Jose de Venecia, scrupulously observed the procedures of proper coordination. They cleared their visits with the President of the Republic and duly received briefings from the peace authorities and the security officials.

No matter how much one might dislike the administration, nothing justifies an elected public official blissfully snubbing the institutions of the Republic designed to coordinate peace initiatives. What Madrigal did – concealing her itinerary from the Senate and contemptuously failing to coordinate with the authorities supervising the peace initiative – is an act of supreme irresponsibility.

No matter what one’s partisan affiliations might be, every elected public official is an agent of the Republic. Every mature public official is expected to behave accordingly.

Regardless of what one’s family name might be, we are all equally bound by the laws of the Republic. All those who serve in some official capacity are equally expected to keep the best interests of the Republic at the top of their minds.

Madrigal might have established an impressive record as a politician revolving around an orbit all her own. But that cannot be an excuse for indulging in irresponsible breaches of procedures.

If Madrigal wants to make herself a willing tool of communist propaganda, then that is her choice. If she wants to demean the institutions of the Republic tasked with supervising the security and peace processes, then that is her option. If she wants to pull the most outrageous ploys to win publicity for herself, she is free to do that.

But she must not forget that the office she was elected to binds her to the duty of strengthening the integrity of the Republic – not undermining it for myopic political gain.