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When Sen. Jamby Madrigal stood up last week to interpellate Sen.
Bong Revilla on a movie industry bill that he was sponsoring, I
immediately wondered why she was interested in the industry.
Somebody who looked like Rey Marfil of Abante
Tonite immediately answered: “Don’t you know that Jamby will
soon be the leading lady in an upcoming movie?”
I admitted ignorance of this so I asked him what
was the title of Jamby’s movie.
“Mana Po!” was his quick reply.
Anyway, going back to Madrigal’s
interpellation of Revilla, she started by asking what language he
preferred to use.
“English or Tagalog?” she asked, as Senate
reporters gasped.
To the credit of Revilla, he did not take this
question as an insult on his language ability. After a momentary
silence and a deep breath, Revilla answered in English.
Incidentally, the Senate went on to pass on
second reading the bill seeking to reduce the entertainment tax from
30 percent to only 10 percent.
But I am digressing. Going back to Senator
Madrigal, she later stood up to manifest her readiness to be
interpellated on her sponsorship of the Anti-Child Pornography bill.
This marks the first time that she would be sponsoring a bill since
her election in 2004. I disregard the Juvenile Justice System bill
because she withdrew as sponsor after delivering her speech and then
went on to denounce it and vote against it. If the Anti-Child
Pornography bill becomes a law, then that will be her second measure
to author a law. Her first one, passed in the 13th Congress, grants
Filipino citizenship to I-forgot-his-name.
For her bill to become a law, she must first
defend it ably on the floor. It is here that she showed signs of
nervousness, particularly at the prospects of debating with Sen. Pia
Cayetano. They did, before, but it was Pia who was defending the
bill. With the Anti-Child Pornography bill, the tables are turned.
It will be Madrigal who will be defending a bill.
Anyway, in her manifestation, Madrigal said:
“I would also just like to put on record that short of begging
Sen. Pia Cayetano to impress upon her the importance of this bill, I
ask that if we can pass this on Tuesday, this will be a landmark
bill.”
She went on to discuss the global and national
problem of child pornography, before going back to Pia: “I would
like to impress on Sen. Pia Cayetano that for the sake of the
children, I ask that we put our personal differences aside and to
stand above personal differences. She may dislike me, and I am very
sorry about that. I apologize. But if she could put her personal
differences aside for the sake of the children who are being used
daily by pornographers—we have become the largest producer [of
pornographic] films—I hope these pornographers will be taxed.”
She then issued an appeal to Senate President
Manuel Villar to “put a kind word in the ear of Sen. Pia Cayetano
from Pateros, to really realize the importance of this bill.”
These words sent Pia rushing from her office on
the fifth floor to the session hall on the second floor. She was
gasping for breath (Madrigal had previously asked her to stop
running because she was not a horse) and was visibly trembling with
emotion.
“I am not aware that the desire to
interpellate, in fact, the obligation to interpellate, is in any way
signifying that one is not intending to support the bill,” she
said, adding that she is one of the strong supporters of anti-child
pornography.
Then, in an obvious dig at Madrigal, she said:
“Unlike what has been my unpleasant experience, I will never
expect a sponsor of a bill to wait for three months, nine months,
one year, for me to finish my interpellation.”
Pia said one thing that struck my
attention—that she had been approached by several senators asking
her not to interpellate Madrigal. If this is so, then it shows that
the quality of the present Senate is a shade less than the previous
ones, except the forgettable 13th Congress. The late Sen. Raul Roco
said that when a senator stands up, he or she must be prepared to
show what he or she has got. I also remember that Sen. Juan Ponce
Enrile once made searching questions to then Sen. Ralph Recto about
a tax bill. Recto said he knew JPE would be supporting him because
JPE had sponsored a similar measure when he was chairman of the Ways
and Means. JPE replied: “Well, you are the sponsor now and you
should be able to defend it. I defended it when I was the
sponsor.”
efrendanao2003@yahoo.com
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