Jamby joins the movies

Until Bulletin’s Cris Belen and I had a two-on-one with Jamby Madrigal over lunch at Annabel’s Restaurant (Tomas Morato, Quezon City) last week, I didn’t have any idea that she is related to former Supreme Court Chief Justice, the late Jose Abad Santos, even if for years now I’ve been passing along the street named after him on my way home to Quezon City from The STAR office in Port Area.

"He was my grandfather," confirmed Jamby who, in person, was far more lovable than the way she was (wrongly?) "marketed" by her handlers when she ran for Senator in the 2001 election. "As his daughter, my mother, Amanda Abad Santos, had a short fuse for any type of injustice. Even at the time of the (Marcos) dictatorship, she wasn’t very happy. My mother taught me that justice should be applied to all. She said, ‘If your grandfather was able to give his life for the country, at least we must be able to do something even in a small way to always fight injustice.’ I always remind people, ‘That’s my grandfather in the P1,000 bill’."

People will have a glimpse of that hitherto not-so-known aspect of Jamby’s life in the movie Ka Taruc (bioflick of Luis Taruc, with Pampanga Gov. Lito Lapid in the title role) where Jamby makes a movie "debut" as her grandmother Amanda Teopaco Abad Santos.

"My granduncle, Pedro Abad Santos, was the mentor of Luis Taruc in the social reform movement, that’s why he gave up all his inheritance, all his land, to the poor people because when he founded the Socialist Party of the Philippines, he gave up all his rights as a landlord. He fought under General Hizon in the Philippine-American War; he was a very brave soldier. He was a strong nationalist. Luis Taruc said that no two people influenced him more in his lifelong crusade for justice than the Abad Santos brothers. I play my grandmother as she says goodbye to Jose Abad Santos."

Jamby was lucky that she had a chance to know her grandmother who died when Jamby was in Grade 3.

"She was a very strong woman in the sense that living with Jose Abad Santos was very difficult. He was a Mason and he lived his philosophy. My grandmother couldn’t have more than one viand, it had to be isang ulam, isang kanin. And to think that my grandmother came from the very rich Teopacos of San Fernando, Pampanga. My grandfather didn’t want his children to have nail polish and he even castigated one of his daughters for wearing red nail polish and red lipstick. When he was courting my grandmother, he castigated her for wearing diamonds so my grandmother stopped wearing diamonds all her life.

"He was 20 when he courted her and she was only 16, the belle of San Fernando. He first saw her during a picnic at the San Fernando River. She fell and he saved her from drowning by catching her by her hair."

That’s the Kapampangan side of Jamby. She’s a Bicolana on the side of her father, industrialist Antonio Madrigal, whose father, philanthropist and former Senator Vicente Madrigal of Albay, was the son of a Spanish captain who married a Spanish mestiza. The Madrigals were engaged in commerce and shipping, besides philanthropy. (Jamby’s aunt, Sen. Pacita Madrigal-Warns, was the first administrator of post-war Social Welfare Administration.)

Now we know from whom Jamby inherited her genuine concern for the poor and the underprivileged, something which, again no thanks to her handlers, she wasn’t able to effectively convey to the people when she ran for Sentor in 2001.

"I was a neophyte then. I would say that everything was mishandled and I couldn’t get my message across to the people. There have also been misconceptions about me. While some people think that I’m a socialite, the poor know the real me. I have the blood of my grandparents. Some members of my family don’t agree with what I’m doing because they are the socialites; I am not. Some socialites do charity work but they don’t want to dirty their hands. They just stay in their little cocoons and look pretty, and that’s not my goal. My Tita Pacita (Madrigal-Warns) suffered the same fate. She was condemned by the very class she came from because of her foray into politics. She’s now 89 and a hermit; she lives with a dog that I gave her."

Not many people know that even after she failed in her senatorial bid, Jamby continued with her outreach programs for the poor and the children all over the country. Recently, Jamby launched the Kontra-Pulitika Movement, with Judy Ann Santos figuring prominently in its infomercials and advocacies.

"The Kontra-Pulitika Movement is aimed at heightening the public’s awareness of the current ills brought about by the rampant politization of events in Philippine society and the serious need for reforms," explained Jamby. "Among our members are businessmen, entrepreneurs, educators, concerned parents and students. We welcome new members." (Those interested may call 0917-8152629 or e-mail to [email protected] for more information.)

Working side by side with Jamby is her husband of one year (they’re celebrating their first wedding anniversary this month), Frenchman Eric Valade, the future Count Valade, who came eight years ago to pursue what he called his "Asian Dream" (the opposite of many people’s "American Dream").

"I’ve always been fascinated with Asia," said Eric who was Jamby’s best friend before he became her husband, and whose granduncle was one-time head of Renault, a French car company.

Eric’s family, the Dudoignons, were knighted in Medieval times because they had fought for the King of France. "I quit my work at a telecommunications company and came to Asia. I’d been to Vietnam, Indonesia and other Asian countries before I settled down in the Philippines," added Eric who starred in a BayanTel commercial when he was new in the Philippines.

"We share the same vision," said Jamby.

Are the Ka Taruc movie and Kontra-Pulitika Movement part of Jamby’s grand plan to give politics another try?

Jamby looked at us straight in the eye and said, "As of now, I’m not sure... I don’t know."

(E-mail reactions at [email protected])