Senator Miguel Zubiri on his legislation, resignation, brush with Covid, and ultimately being a senator not of the people, but certainly for them.
First Class
Blink and for a moment, Senator Miguel “Migz” Zubiri could seem like a character straight out of Julius Caesar. His flowing silver locks communicate wisdom. His patrician features indicate class. And one can imagine his sonorous baritone easily carrying a point across any senate floor – marble or carpet alike. One would almost certainly feel for his destiny as a lawmaker.
But in another time, it might not have been.
Senator Migz recalls a scene from his youth, as a fresh graduate and owner of a sugar farm in Bukidnon. “The sugar mill went on strike,” he explains, “and nobody could deliver the cane to the mill to be processed.” Challenged, along with several other farmers, he went to his father for help to end the impasse. “I’ll never forget how he got upset,” recalls the younger Zubiri, who instilled in him the value of empathy. “He got mad at us! He told us that ‘those people have lives too. Those people have rights too. They need an opportunity for their plight to be heard, too. They deserve what is due to them. These people are also fighting for their needs. And They need to be listened to.”
It’s a lesson he’s taken well into adulthood, as Senator Zubiri is, in his own words, “an advocacy guy,” he says, in a smile that immediately takes twenty years off his gruff, weathered looks, “I love pushing for advocacies and policies that can help change the way government looks at many programs and projects.” A believer in making a big impact through legislation, some of the broadest-sweeping laws he’s passed (and co-authored) include: the Ease of Doing Business Act (an anti-red tape law), the Cooperative Code (which sets up cooperatives better), the Renewable Energy Act, the Wildlife Conservation Act, and the Free College Education Act— “which I co-authored with Senators Bam Aquino, Sherwin Gatchalian, Joel Villanueva, Sonny Angara, Dick Gordon, Ralph Recto, JV Ejercito, and Loren Legarda, and allows for all state colleges to be free of tuition— a game-changer!”
“I truly believe that you should let your performance campaign for you,” he shares, “In my case, as a legislator, that means letting the bills and laws that I’ve passed be front and center in my campaign, so people know my advocacies.”
Of course, given his esteemed background, one wonders how he can effectively legislate for the vast majority of an island nation mired in challenges.
A MAN FOR THE PEOPLE
There is a scene in the movie gladiator where a critic asks a privileged senator how he can understand what goes on through the minds of the masses— so easily distracted by spectacle and gore. Without missing a beat the senator responds with “I may not be a man of the people, but I am a man for the people.”
It sounds like something Senator Migz would say and in many ways he does this— through his everyday routine. “I’m not a traditional politician who goes around with an entourage,” he reveals. “I’m the exact opposite— I like to be low profile.” Whilst some senators have four, five or even close to a dozen people in their entourage, Senator Migz likes to travel light. “In the Senate, I only ask one aide to join me when we go around. And I have no bodyguard, for the record. I do not bring bodyguards. I have no back-up cars, no wang-wang. I do not use my number 7 plate, that’s kept in the Senate office for safekeeping.” Himself openly despising the type of privilege given to politicians— he can only shake his head at his colleagues who zig-zag along EDSA. “I’m the first one to curse and say, ‘Who the hell is that?’”
Yet despite his ferocity on the senate floor or Arnis mats, Senator Migz’ true strong point hearkens to his early sugar strike lesson from his father— empathy. “I believe in lining up like everybody else. You can ask anybody at the airport, when they see me at the airport to transit from Manila to Cagayan de Oro, I wait in line like everybody else. I don’t have somebody pick me up from the front and bring me into the VIP area. No way. And If I go abroad, I line up at the immigration tables, even if the immigration agents are already flagging me to go to the front of the line, I insist on lining up like everybody else. I’m very proud of that as I want to lead by example. I hate the entitlement or privileged feeling that traditional politicians have.”
Incredibly, his respect for the vox populi extends to even his position. When given the chance to choose between what the people wanted and his personal gain, he did exactly what he said he would, and waited in line.
Political Unthinkable
2011 saw Senator Zubiri embroiled in one of the Philippines’ unofficial pastimes come election season— the contested win. “That was one of the most difficult times in my life,” the good senator says of the ordeal. For after being declared by the Commission on Elections as the number 12 top vote for senator, the candidate next in line, Sen. Koko Pimentel, insisted he was defrauded out of his slot. “He insisted that he was cheated by local politicians,” recalls Senator Zubiri, “particularly in the province of Maguindanao.”
After a long ang protracted recount, the polls did indeed show that Sen. Koko had won the twelfth seat. “A lot of people—lawyers, politicians, almost all the senators, almost all the mayors and governors—spoke to me and said, ‘Migz, hold on, finish your term, fight it out in the Senate Electoral Tribunal and take it up all the way to the Supreme Court. By the time your case will end, it’s time for reelection.’” But Senator Migz thought the lie was something he could not afford, and did the unthinkable. He resigned. “Being elected to this office is a public trust. If the public loses their trust in you, particularly on the issue of elections, and the suffrage of the people is cheated—you can never recover from that.”
In return, he got one of the best times of his life. “After I resigned, I had five years of quality and quantity time for my family and I was able to make another baby, my Santi, the youngest. So it was a good five years out of politics as well. And I have no regrets.” Senator Migz considers his family one of the most important things in his life. Like any responsible father, he would want the best for his own. So it came doubly as a shock when he found himself potentially endangering them.
Patient 142
“I was Patient No. 142,” recalls Senator Zubiri, “I remember getting a call from Sec. Duque on March 16 (2020), telling me that I was positive on my PCR test from the RITM. I was completely shocked.” As a time when no protocols for the mysterious Covid existed, Senator Migz found both his martial physical skills and his statesmanship vexxed. “I had a flash of scenarios going through my mind, and I think it was more of a mental breakdown than a physical breakdown on my part.” Fortunately, he experienced mild symptoms. “But it gave me good perspective on the fact that COVID-19 was a treacherous virus,” he says, reflecting on the irony of advocating for thermal scanners and disinfectant in the senate building a mere two days before he was infected. He shares the anguish of having to isolate for 36 days, as well as the stress of the media expecting one of the highest-ranking officials in the land share his experience. “That was an experience,” he says, “then again, I tell people, if I survived it, they can survive it.”
Mid-term Meditations
Mid-way through his term in the middle of the year, the honourable senator confides, “short term, definitely my biggest wish is to end the pandemic, get back to normal again, and get rid of COVID-19.” His sentiment, no doubt influenced by his experience with the now over 1 million Filipinos who’ve tested positive, informs his dream for the country to literally get better.
But some people are meant to dream bigger.
“Medium and long term—is too much to ask that we be at least similar to Singapore, or Malaysia, or New Zealand?” He muses. Senator Migz sees their ease of doing business, witnesses their environmental protection initiatives, and observes the happiness indexes of those (for many) faraway countries and wonders— why not the country he grew up in? “Putting all of these policies, these best practices—such as peace and order, livelihood development, poverty eradication, education so that every child can be a college graduate and the country can be an educational powerhouse in medicine, research and development, science and technology—that’s my dream for our country.”
Asked what he would say to the students he so very much supports, Senator Migz doesn’t miss a beat. “Never give up on your dreams,” he shares with the confidence of a mentor, “Whether you have the privilege of studying in a good school, or even if you’re just finishing high school but you have a plan and a dream—never give up on your dreams.” He stresses the need to work hard and put everything one has into it, but that’s the only way dreams come true. “And make a difference,” he adds, “in your life and in other people’s lives.” Senator Miguel Zubiri, who counts Jose Rizal and John F. Kennedy as some of his idols, shares that people pass through the world once— and making a positive difference in the world is perhaps one of the best ways to live life.
“Whether it’s just for one person, or for many people. Or even for yourself and your family. Make a difference in someone’s life, and make a difference in society.” It’s a sentiment that certainly deserves to be encoded in the laws of society— but as Senator Migz himself demonstrates, some things are decided on a personal level.
—alike.com.ph
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