Pacita Madrigal-Warns

Maria Paz Paterno Madrigal-Warns (nee Madrigal) (May 4, 1915 – September 12, 2008), commonly known as Pacita Madrigal-Warns (from 1945 to 1956), later Pacita Madrigal Gonzalez (from 1956 until her death), was a Filipina ballet dancer, former beauty queen, and politician. She served as the administrator of the Social Welfare Administration (SWA) under Ramon Magsaysay's cabinet from 1953 to 1955 and was a Senator of the Philippines from 1955 to 1961 during the Third and Fourth Congresses; she was the second woman to be elected to the Philippine Senate. As a senator, Madrigal-Warns authored the bill that would become Republic Act No. 3060, which created the Board of Censors for Motion Pictures in 1961.

In 1970, a corruption scandal at the National Cottage Industries Development Authority (NACIDA) led to Madrigal-Warns' resignation as its administrator.

Early life and education Maria Paz Paterno Madrigal was born on May 4, 1915, to Vicente Madrigal López of Albay, a Filipino-Spanish business tycoon and senator from 1945 to 1953 and Susana Ramos Paterno of Laguna. Second of seven siblings, Maria Paz, or Pacita, grew up in San Miguel, Manila.

Madrigal-Warns studied in Philippine Women's University and became Colegio de San Juan de Letran's Princess of Education at the age of fifteen. She graduated class valedictorian in the same school, and later entered Sorbonne University in Paris. She took business administration degree at the University of Santo Tomas where she graduated magna cum laude. She also took finishing courses at the Le Collège Féminin de Bouffemont in France, and at Dale Carnegie Course and Powers School in New York. Later that year, she gave up the administration of their school to head the Women for Magsaysay Movement (WMPM), which supported the candidacy of the then Ramon Magsaysay for presidency. Upon his assumption of office, Magsaysay appointed Madrigal-Warns as the chief of the Social Welfare Administration (SWA) in 1953. Later, she re-structured the organization of WMPM from a civic organization to a social welfare society. She also established the Samahang Manang Pacita (Manang Pacita Movement) which focused on community development.

In the late 1960s, Madrigal-Gonzales served as the administrator of the National Cottage Industries Development Authority (NACIDA). By 1970, the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) as chaired by Edgar Jopson began calling for her removal due to alleged corruption in the agency during her tenure, which forced her to resign in late March 1970.

Personal life Pacita Madrigal was married to Herman Warns from 1945 until his death in 1956. They had one issue, Vicente Madrigal Warns, known as "Bu Madrigal".

At the death of Warns, Madrigal married lawyer Gonzalo Wilfrado Rafols Gonzalez, son of Bienvenido Ma. Gonzalez, an educator and president of the University of the Philippines from 1939 to 1943 and 1945–1951. They had one child, Ana Maria Gizela Madrigal Gonzalez.

Madrigal-Warns is the aunt of Jamby Madrigal, who also served as senator from 2004 to 2010.

She died on September 12, 2008.

Legacy Pacita Madrigal Warns - Mababang Paaralan ng Bagong Silang (Calatagan, Batangas)