Political Tidbits : Jamby was naïve at the very least

POLITICAL TIDBITS First posted 11:46pm (Mla time) July 05, 2006
By Belinda Olivares-CunananInquirer

http://news.inq7.net/archive_article/index.php?ver=1&index=1&story_id=8335

Editor's Note: Published on Page A11 of the July 6, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

SOME senators confess that they oftentimes cannot understand Sen. Jamby Madrigal’s explanations, as she tends to rely on PowerPoint presentations about abstract ideas that seem to go over their heads. Thus, they often emerge more confused from such sessions. But in the recent controversy over her unauthorized meeting with Jose Ma. Sison and Luis Jalandoni of the National Democratic Front (NDF) in Utrecht and their signing of a joint communiqué, listing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s “sins,” including her all-out war against the New People’s Army, and calling for her ouster by February 2007, Madrigal has confused the nation as well.
She seems also to be too eager to look politically sophisticated, when in reality she’s just naïve. She appears too eager to get into the headlines on controversial issues, when the prudent thing for a neophyte, especially one with an elitist background, is to first keep a low profile as she goes through her political education.
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Her protagonist, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, has fired a series of questions that she should answer forthrightly. With a tinge of sarcasm, Enrile demanded by what authority she met with the Utrecht-based communist leaders who are considered enemies of the state and terrorists abroad and signed a joint communiqué with them. Did she represent the republic or the Senate, her political party, her family or her social class or gender? -- asked Enrile, who sought a Senate investigation.
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This act of holding an unauthorized meeting with enemies of the state demands at the very least a summons from the Senate ethics committee. On the other hand, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez has said he’s looking into the treason angle, “in case war breaks out with the rebels.” Interestingly, however, the Senate, which is usually quick to investigate anything, won’t call her to even just explain.

Senate President Franklin Drilon has pooh-poohed Madrigal’s meeting by saying that many other politicians have sought out the NDF leaders, notably Speaker Jose de Venecia. What he didn’t say, however, was that De Venecia traveled to Utrecht and then Oslo to broker peace with the NDF, with express authority from the Arroyo administration. Since then a number of officials have gone to Utrecht, notably Tarlac Gov. Apeng Yap and former Justice Secretary Silvestre Bello III, for the peace process, but could not move it forward.
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Based on reports, Madrigal’s self-appointed mission appears to be in tandem with the opposition’s goal of ousting President Arroyo by forging a united front with the Left. It has become evident that even ranking opposition politicians can no longer distinguish between what’s politically correct and what’s not, or even what’s seditious and treasonous. It seems they would go for anything so long as it holds promise of ousting Ms Arroyo. It’s a sad commentary on the kind of politicians we have. To think that there are people who still want to keep the Senate.
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The recent Supreme Court ruling upholding Malacañang’s authority over mining operations in Mt. Diwalwal in Compostela Valley virtually affirms the actions taken by former Environment Secretary Heherson Alvarez in 2002 to resolve the 20-year-old Diwalwal crisis. President Arroyo issued Proclamation 297 on Nov. 25, 2002, declaring the disputed gold rush area as a mineral reservation. It was the first time that a provision of RA 7942, or the Mining Act of 1995, which outlined government’s “priority rights” over lands with vast natural resources, was tested.
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In 2002, Diwalwal was a hotbed of conflict among big- and small-time miners. Things were threatening to get out of hand. Alvarez recommended that a portion of the area be set aside for small-scale miners, and in September of that year, he awarded 22 service contracts to some 2,000 small miners who organized themselves into cooperatives. This scheme was hailed as the “social justice program of Ms Arroyo in Diwalwal” since it also addressed social equity issues such as the tenure of the small-scale miners, health and the deteriorating peace and order situation. The scheme fulfilled the provisions of Republic Act 7076, the People’s Small-Scale Mining Act, which says small-scale miners cannot be dislodged from their areas of operation if they have been there since prior to 1987.

Big miners challenged the formula in the Supreme Court, but in upholding Malacañang’s authority over mining operations in Diwalwal, the Court affirmed Ms Arroyo’s and Alvarez’s action. It ruled that under the law, the government may, on its own, take over mining operations or enter into an agreement with any qualified entity. It said that “the exercise of this prerogative lies with the Executive Department over which the courts will not interfere.”
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Sadly, however, while the Alvarez formula for peace and social justice in Diwalwal was hailed, it became his swan song. Not long afterwards, the Palace succumbed to vested interests, among them the group led by Victoria Garchitorena, who was to turn against Ms Arroyo on July 8, 2005, and the Alcantara family of Davao. Ms Arroyo unceremoniously removed Alvarez from his post and replaced him with Garchitorena’s candidate, Elisea Gozun, whose husband had worked for a long time with the Alcantara family. Gozun’s first act was to rescind Department Administrative Order No. 17, which Alvarez had the guts to implement for the first time. The order sought to protect small fishermen by declaring areas 15 sq km from shore off-limits to trawl fishing.

Alvarez had dreamt of the emergence of a new middle class from the small-miners’ reservation he sought to carve from Diwalwal, and the Court’s recent ruling leaves him quite vindicated about its feasibility. But he also knows that the issue is “far from resolved. Small-scale miners continue to clamor for the win-win solution we enforced in 2002. That must now be enforced.”