“… and unto dust thou shalt return…”
March 25, 2008 at 5:16 pm (Family Traditions, Random memories, The Global Crowd, The Manilenos, Tristesse)
You would think that Immense Wealth and Great Power would, could, and should confer Immortality on an Individual. I, for one, have always thought so.
But there She rested in her elegant manse amidst Everyone and Everything She treasured most… After all, She was one of the very grandest ladies Manila had ever known: Consuelo Alejandra “Chito” Paterno Madrigal-Vasquez-Collantes.
Her ashes were finally interred at the Madrigal Mausoleum in Alabang in a very elegant box of “kamagong” ebony wood decorated with ivory inlays made by Osmundo “Omeng” Esguerra, the antiquaire and furnituremaker to Manila high society. However, the expense and the elegance of it all did not change the fact that they were just ashes in a wooden box.
Food for thought…
“Sic transit gloria mundi”…
bambinawrites said,
March 25, 2008 at 8:22 pm
I am utterly devastated about Tita Chito’s passing. A grande dame in every sense of the word - in carriage, demeanor, graciousness and generosity. She had a lovely sense of humor too…
rgdrgfrturdfriedfrogslegs said,
March 26, 2008 at 5:44 am
So…… who gets the helicopter?
HRH said,
March 26, 2008 at 11:54 am
truly an end of an era…
zippo said,
March 27, 2008 at 1:04 am
Just wondering why Ging and ChuChu were listed as “bereaved nieces” in the obituary notice but Jamby and the Vazquez kids weren’t even mentioned?
Z
Rita said,
March 27, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Chito Madrigal’s passing marks the end of an era. The torch has now been passed to her favorite niece, the sophisticated Chu-Chu Madrigal. She will be the next Chito Madrigal!!! Chito’s Citibank accounts will be accessed only by ******. Her Emeralds may go to *****. Her Diamonds to the **** grandniece.
wrrgdsgvfdfgvzdvz said,
March 28, 2008 at 3:47 am
Hmm…seems to me somebody’s imitating my nom-de-plume. Anyway, I was very shocked to hear about Dona Chito Madrigal-Collantes passing away. Somehow her death makes me think of the near-brushes of Meldy Ongsiako-Cojuangco back in 2005 and Meldy Romualdez-Marcos back in November-ish 2007.
talagang tsismoso said,
March 28, 2008 at 6:20 am
the reason why Ging and ChuChu were listed as bereaved nieces but Jamby and the Vazquez kids weren’t even mentioned is both Ging, ChuChu & Bu as well, became her ward at some point of their lives they all stayed with their tita chito who became their second mom because chito was not blessed to have her own children she treated them as her own children she even adopted the son of Bu, Gustav
Nenuca (Chi-Chi) Valderrama said,
March 28, 2008 at 4:14 pm
So, Tita Chito [ Madrigal-Collantes ] has now joined her beloved arch-enemy, Tita Pilar [ Tuason-Manzano ], with whom she waged many a battle galore, in the Great Beyond.
Will the sparks continue in the afterlife?
Speaking of Imelda Marcos, I just saw her on a recent clip shedding copious “crocodile tears” for Tita Cory’s affliction. She’s really looking quite grotesque. I wonder when those puffy cheeks will finally burst?
Paolo Sotto Manzano said,
March 29, 2008 at 10:43 pm
I have heard about Tita Chito and my Grandmother’s spat at the Hilton a long time ago when she threw a cocktail (and glass) at CM-C from my Grandfather.
He never told me the reasons behind this though. Nenuca, care to enlighten me a bit?
Nenuca (Chi-Chi) Valderrama said,
March 30, 2008 at 3:36 am
Oh? So that’s how it started.
Frankly, Paolo, I also never knew the true reason for their animosity towards each other. I learned about it through poor Amelita Reysio-Cruz’s columns in the Manila Bulletin. It was, is, quite titillating because it was, as you said, a “spat” — between two AAA List heavyweights of Manila’s “alta sociedad,” with a lot of might and muscle to bear, and it endured for a while.
It was a high society catfight with one feline probably decked out in Patou’s “Joy,” and the other smelling of Guerlain’s “Ode,” the likes of which soignee Manille has not seen in awhile. And at one of Manila’s top watering holes no less. It was “Dynasty” in real-life!!! I could almost see your Abuelita as “Alexis” ( Joan Collins ) and Tita Chito as “Krystle” ( Linda Evans ) ( or the other way around if you prefer
), going at it tooth-and-nail, at the Top of the Hilton no less! What I would’ve given to have been present that night!!!
Sorry, not meaning to demean your grandmother but it was delicious when it was raging hot. Perhaps you can ask any of your remaining elders to shed some light on this — the two principals having moved on to even more rarefied climes — and share that with us?
Best,
N.V.
Ritard Goliamco said,
March 30, 2008 at 4:51 am
The modern version of the Chito Madrigal versus Pilar Tuason-Manzano catfight at the old Hilton happened in the 1990s: It was between Gr*tchen Barret*o versus D*nise Y*but-Coj*angco. D*nise threw a piece of cake at Gr*tchen’s face at “Giraffe” ( bar owned by TBC ) and “all hell broke loose.” Also comparable was the Min*ie *smena versus D*wi S*karno in the 1990s in Aspen, Colorado. D*wi slit Min*ie’s face with a champagne glass because of jealousy. The *********** fight well. Like monkeys in the jungle…
periphery said,
March 30, 2008 at 3:57 pm
The Indonesian slit the Filipina’s face.
toto gonzalez said,
March 30, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Mea culpa, periphery.
Toto Gonzalez
bambinawrites said,
March 30, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Wasn’t D*wi Japanese? Didn’t she become an Indonesian citizen when she married Sukarno?
periphery said,
March 30, 2008 at 5:58 pm
bambinawrites: Yep, you’re correct. She was a “geisha.”
Garganta Inflamada said,
March 30, 2008 at 6:59 pm
periphery said,
The Indonesian slit the Filipina’s face.
*************************************
Oh. So that accounts for MO’s visits to the plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills.
Yes, Dewi was a 19-year old geisha when she met Sukaro.
I did a little research and this is The New York Times’ account of the Aspen prize fight:
“Much more sensational was her spat with the Philippine socialite Minnie Osmena at a party in Aspen in early January 1992, when — she cannot deny it — she hit Ms. Osmena in the face with a wine glass, causing a wound that took 37 stitches to close.
”It was like the old Western word: lynch,” Mrs. Sukarno said. ”How can you charge me with second-degree assault with intent to kill? You don’t go to a New Year’s party thinking to kill Minnie Osmena! In any party a glass can break.”
Relations with Ms. Osmena had been poor since she had announced a few months earlier, at a party on the Spanish island of Ibiza, her intention to run for vice president of the Philippines and Mrs. Sukarno had burst out laughing.
Mrs. Sukarno is fuzzy about the details of her assault in Aspen, but she is still shocked at what happened next.
”In front of me I saw a little, little line on her forehead,” she recalled. ”Then blood started to come, very little. I was stunned. I didn’t even know the glass touched her. I saw it like a slow-motion movie. You want to see her photo? I can blow it up for you. You can see her face has nothing, nothing.”
In a plea bargain, Mrs. Sukarno was sent to jail for disorderly conduct, and to her surprise, she said, ”I was very happy in jail.”
”I felt like I was in a dormitory — I felt like a student,” she said. ”I made my room so beautiful, with little animals, with paintings, everything was so nice. It was fun for me. I could have stayed longer.”
I suppose there are worse places to be calaboosed than pristine Aspen, Colorado. Like Jakarta or Manila.
I love this line of hers: “You don’t go to a New Year’s party thinking to kill Minnie Osmena! In any party a glass can break.” So Minnie’s face just happened to stop the breaking glass. It’s so…”CSI”-meets-Zsa Zsa Gabor!!
Any more of these celebrity, specially involving Manila socialites, catfights?
G.I.
lse77 said,
March 31, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I came across your blog while trying to get some news about the death of the grand dame. Did read some of your posts and I must say, you rock! Very interesting and entertaining!
Will definitely bookmark your site. Mabuhay ang Pinoy!
lse77 said,
March 31, 2008 at 12:47 pm
By the way, I like the title of this post “…and unto dust thou shalt return…” Here’s a couple of Biblical passages that clearly shows one of the basic principles of life : “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither …” (Job 1:12) “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” (I Timothy 6:7)
ichiro said,
March 31, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Garganta,
What the New York Times failed to mention was the nasty comment Minnie Osmena made against Madame Imelda which irked Dewi Sukarno. I don’t know whether this comment was made in Aspen or in Ibiza. Dewi and Minnie already had a longstanding fued. Dewi is friends with Madame Imelda while Minnie isn’t. After the Aspen incident, Dewi published a book with her semi-nude photos in it. Minnie said Dewi came out with that book since she’s broke.
Minnie’s father comes from the Osmena-Chiong Veloso family of Cebu. Her mother comes from the de la Rama family of Bacolod.
zippo said,
April 1, 2008 at 4:15 am
“You’re nothing but a second-rate, trying-hard copycat!!!”
[ from THAT 1980s Sharon Cuneta movie ]
Z
zippo said,
April 1, 2008 at 10:11 am
Speaking of which, I was at Starbucks this afternoon. One of their magazines was ROGUE. It had Cherie Gil on the cover. She was holding a martini glass the contents of which she was throwing towards the reader.
Z
periphery said,
April 2, 2008 at 4:50 am
I just stumbled upon Manolo’s column about Chito Madrigal-Collantes. A very well-written piece.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20080327-126637/Testimonial-of-a-matriarch
periphery said,
April 2, 2008 at 4:52 am
Whoops… forgot that Inquirer online loves to make old articles disappear. Here is Manolo’s column in its entirety:
The Long View
Testimonial of a matriarch
By Manuel L. Quezon III
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:25:00 03/27/2008
WHEN NEWS came of the passing of Chito Madrigal Collantes–and who could have failed to notice she was gone?–the first thing that entered my mind was a story told by Harold MacMillan.
MacMillan, of the publishing family and a former prime minister of the United Kingdom, recounted a story he’d heard about one of his predecessors, Benjamin Disraeli. To give him the status of a gentleman, the aristocratic Bentinck family bought a country estate for him to use; but they didn’t give it to him until 18 years had passed and Disraeli had already been ennobled.
Near the end of Disraeli’s life, one of the Bentinck heirs, just 23 and who’d just succeeded to the title of Duke of Portland, received an invitation from the (by then) ex-prime minister.
MacMillan narrated: “To his horror he discovered he was the only guest…. When he came down to dinner, there were just three of them, Disraeli, the private secretary, and himself. Disraeli said good evening to him, and not a single word was spoken by anyone throughout that long Victorian dinner, not one single word. Disraeli sat there impassive, glittering with all his orders, wearing the lot–the Star of India and all the rest. His face was white, and tight like a drum; he was an old, old man.
“Then at the end of the dinner he spoke, and he said: ‘My lord duke, I have asked you here tonight because I belong to a race that never forgives an insult and never forgets a benefit. Everything I have I owe to the house of Bentinck. I thank you.”
Madrigal lived a long enough life, a grand life, but managed to do so without turning it into a parody of her past. That is to say, she lived long enough to witness the passing of her own era without becoming a living museum piece, the chief mourner at the funeral of a vanished way of life.
Which is not to say she didn’t pay eloquent tribute to her generation.
In the prologue of her autobiographical coffee-table book, “Picture Me,” she wrote: “I have become acutely aware that many of those I grew up with and with whom I spent many years, are going, will soon be gone, like in some inexorable death auction. Soon there will be nobody left to bear witness to the truly interesting times we lived through. I do not agree with that well-known Chinese curse about interesting times being a burden. They are a gift from God. But I am not here to dwell on the past, to regret what is no more, or even to point out how much better our lives were. I am here to fulfill a task I have imposed on myself, which is, to tell it as I saw it.”
Reviewing her book, I saw on its pages something quite remarkable–it was not only a testimonial to an individual life now gone, but in a sense, a continuing dialogue with the present. Having been a columnist herself, Madrigal knew the virtue of the written word: it offers up a permanent way to have the last word–a matriarch can continue laying down the law from beyond the grave.
She made this observation, circa 1997, when her book came out: “As for high society, which took much of my time in the past, I must say that its days are over. Finished. Society, as we knew it in the 1950s till the 1980s is dead. It has been killed by new contending forces and has sunk without a trace. The rise of new classes, a drastic change in public ideology and the social contract, the expanding economy have done it in. It’s almost as if there had been a revolution. The detritus is the new cafe and club society we see parlayed and hyped up in the lifestyle sections of the press today.”
Ten years later, Reuters quoted “eventologist” Tim Yap’s “Detritus Manifesto:” “There is this mind-set, which I think is so passé, that says: ‘The country is in shambles and the country is having a hard time and you are out there partying.’ But this generation is guiltless when it comes to that.”
He might as well have directly engaged the Madrigal matriarch in a dialogue.
For Madrigal observed, “I miss the good manners of the good old times, the sense of well-being and sure-footed security that growing up in a nice home, in a proper family atmosphere provided. I regret the ostentation and pushiness that today go with being ‘in society,’ the quasi-vulgarity of taste, the maneuvering to get your photo in the papers, the bribery and cultivation of society reporters and columnists.”
Yap (also, incidentally, a columnist) also told Reuters, “Right now, the young generation is a generation that works really hard and wants to reward itself.”
No stranger to the joys of the rewards of effort herself, Madrigal offered up a blunt observation: a reward is best savored as a private pleasure, not a communal trophy, and not as an advertisement.
“One good thing about martial law was the abolition of society pages…. Call me old-fashioned, but I continue to be shocked by people who aggressively seek the limelight and even corrupt media to achieve their self-aggrandizement. In my time good form demanded that we avoid too much exposure,” she wrote.
Perhaps the only person who cheered the publication of this passage was Carmen Guerrero Nakpil for whom the idea of being passé is just another vulgarity at par with newfangled terms like “eventologist.”
Indeed, it was in the closing pages of her book, in her valedictory, so to speak, to younger generations, that Madrigal imparted a clear-headed advice: “Especially in the context of prevalent conditions, widespread poverty, crime and social injustice, it behooves us all not to give scandal by conspicuous consumption. I am upset by the contemporary lack of restraint, the excessive display in clothes, entertainment …. And then they complain about being burglarized, mugged and kidnapped!”
Perhaps she would have said, what is truly passé is to refuse to recognize that things become passé for good reason.
AVK said,
April 10, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Can someone please tell me where I can get a copy of her coffee-table book “Picture Me” ?
Maraming salamat.
toto gonzalez said,
April 11, 2008 at 3:57 am
AVK:
But that “Picture Me” autobiography is sooooo ten years ago…
It’s probably still available in the more chichi bookshops in Manila. Or at the flea markets in and around Bangkal Street, Makati.
Have you tried http://www.amazon.com?
Good Luck!!!
Toto Gonzalez
L*ding said,
April 13, 2008 at 7:54 am
Eulogy delivered by Senator Maria Ana “Jamby” Madrigal during the necrological services for her aunt, industrialist, philanthropist, and Madrigal matriarch Consuelo “Chito” Madrigal-Collantes:
“In paying loving tribute to Tita Chito ( Madrigal-Collantes ) we pay tribute, too, to an entire generation — her generation.
“Hers was a generation different from that of her elder brother Antonio, my father. If he was the exemplar of the old world courtesies of “urbanidad,” Tita Chito was modernity personified.
“I ask you to reflect on what it was, that enabled Tita Chito to be both glamorous, and dismissive of glamour, who could flout tradition, yet represent, for all of us, the finest traditions of our lineage.
“Hers was the swashbuckling elan of the cavalier, the derring-do of the rebel who would take risks for God and country, yet never tarnish the good name of family.
“Allow me to tell you a story.
“Once, there was a glittering dinner at the Tuileries, and at that dinner were Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the Emperor Napoleon III and his empress, Eugenie.
“And at that dinner, one diplomat said to another, “do you know how you can tell the parvenu from someone born to the purple?”
““How,” the second diplomat asked.
““Observe,” the first diplomat said, as the banquet began.
“Footmen brought forward the chairs for Victoria and Eugenie, but as they sat down, Eugenie looked back to make sure her seat was there, while Victoria with Hanoverian certainty, simply sat down.
““La reine Anglaise,” the first diplomat said, “has never faced the uncertainty of wondering if someone is attending to her chair.”
“Tita Chito had that Victorian certainty. It was the kind of certainty that had Tita Chito attend to a starving great, great great-grandson of Victoria, Prince Charles, when they were in Nepal and the cuisine was deplorable, as they shared boiled eggs and beer for breakfast.
“It was that certainty, too, which had her slap him on the back with a breezy “Hi, Charles” which scandalized a fussy equerry.
“Prince Charles brushed aside the prissy equerry’s protestations of lese majeste and proceeded to enthusiastically greet Tita Chito.
“‘Lese-majeste’ was too fussy a convention to matter, to her; she was, if we can stereotype her, a brash New Yorker. Accomplished, modern, confident.
“It was that certainty, that confidence, that allowed Tita Chito to challenge authority and then, to wield it.
“Hers were the sinews of personal conviction, strengthened by adversity, and tempered, even relaxed, at times by self-awareness and even compassion for the plight of others, that turned her into such a source of strength for the family, and for her friends.
“For the transition from rebel to matriarch enabled her to avoid turning her authority into familial tyranny.
“She would have approved of what G.K. Chesterton wrote when he observed, “Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.”
“If tradition was the skeleton that held our family upright, then her strength of will and singlemindedness of family purpose, provided our family’s muscle.
“But she knew, too, that tradition is something that deserves not only a nudge, but the healthy counterpoint of defiance, if it is to have meaning.
“Her generation, in particular, members of her sex, were raised to believe that their role in life was to nurture, but never to lead. Women of her generation expected their husbands to be the professionals.
“Yet she proved herself capable of acquiring all the accoutrements of professional life by means of her own hard work, her own intellectual ability. We forget what a rare thing it was, for her to be called to the bar, to be a lawyer: a rare thing not just for a Filipina of her generation, but a woman of her generation in the District of Columbia, too.
“She once said that if she could live her life again, perhaps she would have chosen the law as her full-time occupation. Yet she lived her life as few lawyers ever have: by being fair.
“We all have our stories of how strong her personality was, how her will –and willfulness, at times- could be so daunting, her remarks, so untypical of the Filipina, then or now, in their bluntness. We forget how at the core of even her most cutting remarks was the truth.
“She said it, as she saw it; and what she saw was, unerringly, what was really at the heart of any matter — whether a matter of the heart or of the moment in the boardroom.
“Hers was a generation that grew up in halcyon days, only to be molded, in the crucible of war, into tough individuals. Men and women who experienced, in a very real and painful way, the transitory nature of privilege and wealth.
“Hers was an unabashed -and deserved- pride in family; hers was a life lived well, with no apologies to make to her peers and society as a whole.
“Later on, she answered the call of duty of her country by working for the political and industrial advancement of our nation.
“She never succumbed to the sort of despair that overwhelmed Roman patricians in the 4th century; instead of retreating into misty memories, she reiterated her resolve, time and again, to be more productive than ever, at a time when many of her peers might have been thinking of turning their back on society as it is at present.
“There too were, the joys of childhood, of enduring friendships made, and the pain and gore of war, which claimed many friends and which resulted in a purgatory on earth for her father, who was slandered for doing his duty but who reclaimed his honor, which has been jealously guarded by his descendants ever since.
“In the pages of ‘Picture Me’ she chronicled the things that truly count - of love gained and lost, of families linked by ties of affection, of friendships nurtured by her ‘joie de vivre.’
“There was politics: the razzle-dazzle of the campaigns of the Fifties and Sixties when our democracy was in its last stages of innocence.
“There was business: for her life was never one of idle extravagance, of foolish frippery, but one devoted to making industries flourish, thereby providing genuine hope for progress in the form of jobs.
“And yes, society life, of those who lived fast and well, but ahead of most, she acknowledged that times have changed and have changed their lifestyles accordingly.
“Tita Chito proved that while she enjoyed life to the fullest, she was no slave to the glitter of the good life. For she realized that all lives touch each other; that the thing to do is to find your happiness without it being a cause for misery on the part of others, though your choices at the time, require self-fulfillment at the expense of your peers’ approval.
“No one appreciated the finer things in life, and that includes the finesse that makes life so much smoother, in so many, often little ways, than Tita Chito.
“Best of all, hers was a life devoid of false modesty: “Some people say that I have lived a charmed life but I prefer to think of it as an engaged life,” she wrote.
“How true: the engaged life. The useful life; a life worthy of commemoration.”"
toto gonzalez said,
April 13, 2008 at 9:50 am
L*ding:
Thank you for that. Very interesting, coming from Senator Madrigal herself.
Toto Gonzalez
taitai said,
April 14, 2008 at 6:33 am
From Victor Agustin’s Cocktales (online)
http://www.cocktales.com.ph/madrigals-billions-make-that-p26m/
taitai said,
April 14, 2008 at 6:36 am
From Victor Agustin’s Cocktales
(www. cocktales.com.ph)
*************************************************************************
Madrigal’s billions? Make that P26m
THE famed fortune of the recently departed Consuelo “Chito” Madrigal-Collantes has been reduced to P26 million two years before her death, apparently thanks to a careful tax planning regimen.
According to the last will and testament of the billionairess, Doña Chito, whose landed family at one time controlled banking and cement interests, left two houses in South Forbes, three in Ayala Alabang, another in San Juan and eight parcels of land in Calatagan, Batangas, the latter with a combined area of nearly 38.7 hectares.
Doña Chito also declared as owning a unit in the family-built Susana Condominium in Manila’s San Juan del 2Monte, three Mercedes-Benzes of unknown make and year, a Manila Polo Club share, and minority, almost negligible shareholdings in 15 both and publicly listed corporations. There was no mention of the ownership of 77 Cambridge Circle, North Forbes, the house she shared with her surviving husband, former Foreign Minister Manuel Collantes, nor of the rarely used Agusta Westland Power helicopter, nor of her house in San Francisco, nor of her upper Eastside New York apartment, nor of the rumored Citibank New York private banking account.
Collantes, now being wheeled around in wheelchair, was left with the house on 34 Banaba St. in South Forbes, as well as the 1-hectare spread at 118 Avocado St. in Ayala Alabang, but the will made no mention of any financial bequeaths.
Eighty percent of the undisclosed residuary estate were left in equal parts to Doña Chito’s niece, Ma. Susana “Chu-Chu” Madrigal- Eduque, and grandson Vicente Gustav Warns. The balance of 20 percent was bequeathed to another niece, corporate lawyer Gizela M. Gonzalez-Montinola. Gizela’s husband, BPI president Aurelio Montinola III, was named the will’s executor and the estate trustee, along with Perry Pe, Gizela’s partner in the Romulo Mabanta law firm. Since the grandson is still a minor, the inheritance has been directed to be held in trust by his parents, Vicente M. Warns and Maria Angeles P. Warns, until Gustav reaches the age of 35. But should Gustav fail to reach 35, his inheritance will be transferred not to his parents but to the Consuelo “Chito” Madrigal Foundation Inc.
“Furthermore, it is my wish that any person who is not related to me by consanguinity within the second civil degree, except as herein provided, shall not, in any manner, inherit or acquire ownership of any property that come from my estate,” Doña Chito said in her will.
The Madrigal matriarch also bequeathed two nephews, Juan Vicente de Leon Rufino and Vicente de Leon Rufino, the third South Forbes house on 17 Balete St.
The long-serving board secretary of Doña Chito’s various real estate companies, Gloria Cahulogan, was rewarded with an Ayala Alabang property; another aide, Siony Pacardo, also received another house and lot in the same subdivision.
One domestic helper was bequeathed with a unit in the Susana Condominium, while the rest of a dozen domestic help and drivers each received P50,000 cash.
The petition for the probate of the Doña Chito’s will was heard and granted by Judge Oscar Pimentel of the Makati Regional Trial Court in September 2006. The eight-page typewritten will was itself signed by Doña Chito on March 22, 2006, two years and two days before she passed away, suffering from emphysema.
Following her will, Doña Chito’s remains were interred in the family mausoleum in Ayala Alabang.
rita said,
April 14, 2008 at 11:14 pm
I told you guys, I’m correct: Chuchu Madrigal will be the next Chito Madrigal. She will be the torchbearer of her family and not Ising Vasquez or Jamby Madrigal. But how come the children of Ising, Jamby, and the other cousins didn’t get a dime? Maybe the jewelry, huh? You don’t really declare jewelry right…??? I want to be Chuchu now: She has a basketball player for a husband ( the dashing Mandy Eduque ) and the billions of her aunt. Love it!!! In 20 years time, watch Chuchu as she uses all the fabulous bling blings of Chito.
spendaholic said,
April 15, 2008 at 3:57 am
So, Jamby didnt get anything from her Aunt’s estate?
Chi Chi said,
April 15, 2008 at 11:50 am
Shocking:::::::::::
Senator questions disinheritance
AN INHERITANCE feud threatens to erupt over the fabulous fortune left by Consuelo “Chito” Madrigal-Collantes, with no less than her niece Senator Maria Ana Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal questioning her being left out in the last will and testament of the late billionairess.
The senator has hired a lawyer, Ernesto Francisco Jr., who last week sent a letter to the beneficiaries of the late society icon questioning the validity of the will and how the estate was partitioned, according to sources close to the family.
The childless Doña Chito, 87, died on March 24, leaving her husband, Marcos-era Foreign Minister Manuel Collantes, as the lone compulsory heir.
According to a copy of the will obtained by Standard Today, his late wife left Collantes a South Forbes Park house and another house in Ayala Alabang.
But a far larger chunk of the Madrigal fortune, 40 percent of Doña Chito’s undetermined residuary estate, was bequeathed to Ma. Susana Madrigal, the senator’s elder sister.
Another 40 percent was bequeathed to a still minor grandchild, Vicente P. Gustav Warns, and the remaining 20 percent to another niece, lawyer Gizela M. Gonzalez-Montinola, wife of Aurelio Montinola III, president of the Bank of the Philippine Islands.
Doña Chito appointed the BPI president two years ago to become the executor and trustee of her last will and testament along with corporate lawyer Perry Pe. Pe and Gonzalez-Montinola are partners in the Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc and De Los Angeles law firm.
The Madrigal will was probated by the Makati Regional Trial Court in 2006, and it is not clear what legal grounds, if any, Senator Madrigal could invoke to invalidate it to presumably include herself among her aunt’s beneficiaries.
According to sources close to the Madrigals, Doña Chito had already advanced her niece’s share of the Madrigal fortune—P100 million, according to one account—when she underwrote Jamby’s senatorial campaign in 2004.
Ironically, the Madrigal matriarch detailed specific instructions in her will that she would not brook any inheritance feud about her undisclosed fortune even in her after-life.
“I do not wish any conflict between my beneficiaries involving my estate after my death,” Doña Chito, a top corporate lawyer in her younger days, said.
“Anyone of the beneficiaries, who should contest or question the acts or decisions of my executor/trustee in any proceedings, whether judicial or otherwise, shall be disqualified to be a beneficiary of my residuary estate.”
Il Gatopardo said,
April 16, 2008 at 6:36 am
Chu-Chu, Chi-Chi, Che-Che, Cha-Cha, Cucuracha….I want the villa in Ibiza or Lugano!!
Liding said,
April 17, 2008 at 9:49 am
Que Barbaridad!!! Loco hija Mia!!!
Hijo Toto Can you put this Chito Section in the latest area or make it a special section. Those people who miss her reads this and I’ve been telling my amigas to put their two cents worth regarding Chito. Your website will be read by future generations and this is a good way of telling them the past. Buenas Noches!
Garganta Inflamada said,
April 18, 2008 at 5:37 am
Liding, it’s LocA hija Mia.
Anyway, que haba noong eulogy ni Jamby. She lost me halfway thru. Are her speeches on the Senate floor always that florid and wordy? Hasn’t she heard of ’short and sweet’?
Also, I wonder if her tribute would’ve changed once she realized the true contents of the will?
But here’s my one memory of CMC. It was one last Sunday afternoon mass at Mary the Queen church in San Juan; this was in 70s. The church was packed. And who should be standing off in the side aisle just like the rest of the people, because they came a little late, were Tita Chito and her beau at the time, Manoling Collantes.
(BTW, where does he come from? I have never heard of other Collantes-es. Am just curious.)
G.I.
L*ding said,
April 18, 2008 at 10:33 am
The Collantes are from Batangas. Manoling Collantes’ marriage to Chito Madrigal upped the status of the family.
zippo said,
April 18, 2008 at 3:20 pm
G.I. said: “Hasn’t she heard of ’short and sweet’?”
G.I., if there’s something about Jamby, she ain’t short and neither is she sweet
Z
ichiro said,
April 19, 2008 at 7:06 pm
The Philippines is an agrarian country. The origins of great wealth from some old families came from the thrift and honest hard work (like clearing the land and cultivation) done by their ancestors. The origins of some other great wealth came from the Mining industry ( Its Mine! Its Mine! thats’ Mine).. and other dubious means…while some origins of Great Wealth from other old families came from the amazing love stories of their ancestors, whether straight or alternative.
During my youth (I was born in the 1970’s). I always play around the living room.I would hear stories from the past among the ladies playing mahjong. I do not know whether those stories are true or not since I persnally do not know the personages mentioned in those stories. some stories like:
-the late industrialist VM and a politician MQ(both deceased) sharing a secret ‘alternative lifestyle’ together. This was pre-war. The politician ‘rewarded’ his lover well… enriching , too, was the lover’s marriage to SP, a rich heiress but physically unattractive. their daughters are also unattractive. i have heard, ONLY heard, they have a lot of family members who are members of the ‘alternative lifestyle society’ …just wondering, is the senadora also a member of that society? is the senadora’s foreign husband engage in the oldest profession before? these are all questions.Maybe some readers here who have knowledge can engligten us on the authenticties of these stories. I personally belive there is nothing wrong with the alternative lifestyle.
-A long deceased (more than a hundred years)nationally acclaimed persosa is also a member of the ‘alternative lifestyle society’ ?….I believe History should not hide the truth. In filipino universities, students are required to study the Life and Works of this persona. I have heard (actually i was eavesdropping) stories from older to the oldest generation about the alternative lifestyle of this persona during his stay in Germay. Historians would picture him out as having girlfriends and a wife. They did not mention his secret alternative lifestyle. all it takes is too scratch the surface a little deeper to find out the truth.But why distort the true being of this persona? if he is indeed a member of the alternative lifestyle society, then so be it. whats the big deal? people are equal and should be respected irregardless of sexual preference. Its the efficiency of the person that matters to do good things. I just feel that history should not hide the truth. A gay national hero would do us good. I rest my case. If anyone who is more knowledgeable on this matter, please enlighten us again. if i need be corrected, please do so..
Thank you.
degtrsedrgfvrdsfwesdcxs said,
April 21, 2008 at 1:41 am
I agree. J*mby is the ugliest because she has the ugliest of hearts. Everything has a purpose and that purpose is to her own benefit alone.
Probably in Dona Chito’s conscience she saw through that. Chuchu follows her heart like when Dona Chito dumped the Vasquez brother without any guilt for Ising and her husband. Dona Chito followed her heart to marry the genteel Batangueno Manoling Collantes. Susana represented her youth, her morena beauty, her childlike and chic side.
Tana follows her quiet resolution to do things without grandstanding manners. Tana may not be as sharp as Dona Chito with businesses ( that goes to Ging and her husband owning a substantial part of the Bank of Philippine Islands. That also goes to the de Leon-Madrigal who are always good about money ) but she “flows like water” unannounced and soft yet affecting people within the family.
While J*mby — J*mby I feel represents Dona Chito’s and any other human’s primeval trait for advancement. A Ruthless Ambition. To be the best. To marry on top even if the impoverished French count does not love her. Even when it was clear he married only to save his signet ring and other dilapidated holdings back in France. To marry because of a name. To be a Senator because of the power that surrounds the position and not the real service it gave during her aunt Pacita Madrigal-Gonzalez’s time.
Nenuca Valderrama said,
April 21, 2008 at 7:22 am
Why, is it Eve Harrington-time all over again?
“Kid, you’re going out there an ingenue, but you’re coming back a senator!!”
On the side: I thought “BPI” was an Ayala-controlled bank?
periphery said,
April 21, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Yes, Nenuca, “BPI” Bank of the Philippine Islands is Zobel de Ayala-controlled. The family maintains its grip on it through directly owned shares as well as indirectly through the Ayala Corporation conglomerate. Aurelio “GG” Reyes Montinola III has been its president for some time now [ succeeding Xavier P.T. Loinaz ], and he is a significant shareholder as well, but at the end of the day is he an employee of the Zobel de Ayala.
rdsfcfzrsdvczsdfcsedxawdx said,
April 22, 2008 at 1:10 am
The Montinolas are one of the biggest non-Zobel shareholders of the ever-reliable and well-managed BPI. You should check the top 100 shareholders listed all these years. I always get a copy because our family is within that thresh hold.
Sometimes Fate plays a funny games in our lives. I remember one person who surmised that A. Consuelo Madrigal is the same as Consuelo A. Madrigal.
But Ana Consuelo and Consuelo Alejandra are never one and the same. The latter was much prettier, much innovative, much generous.
May I say though that I am just itching to see who among the Madrigal girls will emerge one night wearing the gigantic emeralds and rubbies and perfect South Sea pearls of the recently deceased Consuelo A. Madrigal.
Garganta Inflamada said,
April 22, 2008 at 5:30 am
I saw a news clip of the senadora issuing a statement re her contesting her aunt’s will. She replied to the press that “… in time all will be revealed, and it will unfold (raw) like the juiciest of ‘telenovelas’…” (in so many words).
I never noticed before that she is somewhat stooped — I mean posture-wise. And when she sat down beside Legarda, LL seemed to be totally oblivious of what JM was saying to her.
periphery said,
April 22, 2008 at 3:02 pm
G.I.: I saw a clip of the senator saying “it’s not about the money. It’s about transparency and justice.” Whatever that means.
Alphabet soup: The biggest block of shares in BPI has ownership obscured via the PCD. However, among direct holders of certificates of stock, Xavier Loinaz is the biggest individual shareholder. A handful of others, including members of the Madrigal-Paterno and Ortoll-Zaragoza families are bigger shareholders than Aurelio “GG” Reyes Montinola III.
Of course, because ownership through securities firms effectively removes one’s name from the Top 100 list, it could very well be that the Montinolas’ ownership is far greater than meets the eye. But then again, the Top 100 list won’t provide that information anyway.
xdwaxdesarpmtaiuvap said,
April 22, 2008 at 3:12 pm
rdsfcfzrsdvczsdfcsedxawdx said,
I always get a copy because our family is within that thresh hold.
******************************************
Still trying to get in after all these years? >rolls eyes<
*****************************************
Sometimes Fate plays a funny games in our lives.
******************************************
So what’s so funny about that? And are you the same one complaining about another ‘faux nom de plume’? Well, what about your scribbled, mish-mash of letters, gibberish IDs either, hmmm?
**************************************
The latter was much prettier, much innovative, much generous.
**************************************
Actually, it’s… MORE innovative, MORE generous…
**************************************
May I say though that I am just itching to see….
**************************************
Please scratch in private.
Thank you.
L*ding said,
April 23, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Whatever they say about the Montinolas, Ging may look like a simple office lady but, lo and behold, she is a partner in the biggest and most prestigious law firm in the country: “Romulo Mabanta.” Everytime Ging attends high brow parties, she is known for her simplicity ( ala Cory Aquino ) wearing the simplest of clothes, simple jewelry, and sometimes her hair is not even touched by Frank Provost Salon but she owns one of the grandest houses in Forbes Park — “Tropical Modern Meets Japanese Design.” I love her meditation room adjacent to the main hall ( FYI for people who do not know, one cannot build several houses in a Forbes lot)… She is not just a mere wife but she contributes serious wealth to the Montinola Family. I like Ging.
I also like Jamby. She has this rebel attitude found only in true heiresses. She knows her language and speaks it with wit shaped only by someone schooled since birth!!!
To Jamby: Hija, you have a great new house on Hemady already, a goodlooking husband, several nice imported dogs, etc., etc., etc. I heard Chito gave you a substantial amount last 2004 that was the envy of your cousins. That’s already enough, hija. Chito only gave a Forbes house and Alabang lot to her husband, Manoling. Chito gave 40% to Gustav ( well this boy is like their own son ). Don’t worry about it since all the residuary wealth stays with the Madrigal side and not the Collantes side. Chuchu, for all the faults of her husband ( Chito helped Mandy E., according to one poster), will be the Chito Madrigal of the 21st century. Jamby, you are to be the next Pacita Madrigal, the senator.
I admire Chuchu’s works in Bicol especially donating Php 10 million to one Bicol University. Chuchu with all her Filipina Classic Beauty will bring the Madrigal name to the next era of Philippine Society. Lovely!
chuchucaracas said,
April 23, 2008 at 3:20 pm
she really is one great woman whose character and values should be made known to younger generations. tita chito has always been generous to all her relatives.