MANILA, Philippines- It was the "GG" question she didn't see coming.

Even the most combative speaker in Monday's Philippine Daily Inquirer 1st Edition Presidential Debate had to make a guess and put up an excuse when asked: Would you know the current price of "galunggong"?

"I think about P60 per kilo?" Sen. Maria Ana Consuelo "Jamby" Madrigal replied, quickly drawing snickers from the bleachers at the University of the Philippines Theater.

The question, posed to her alone, was apparently a test of whether the lawmaker who hails from one of Manila's Old Rich families could really relate to the grind and toil of the Filipino Everyman, galunggong being the proverbial "poor man's fish." [There are two types of galunggong - galunggong babae (hard-tail mackerel) and galunggong lalaki (round scad)].

The fish had become an unofficial economic barometer for Filipinos since democracy icon Cory Aquino used it to shame the Marcos dictatorship in the 1986 snap elections.

In one of her memorable campaign tirades against Marcos, Cory Aquino then noted how the poor could no longer afford even the supposedly frugal viand under his regime.

Off the mark

Madrigal's answer was way off the mark: The prevailing retail price of galunggong as of Feb. 6 was P120 per kilo, according to a government website.

Madrigal later conceded she wouldn't have correctly guessed the price anyway because "I'm a vegetarian."

A follow-up query - how about the price of salted eggs? - also caught Madrigal off guard, but she also managed to wiggle out of it. "I also don't eat eggs," she said in Filipino.

For much of the two-hour debate, however, the lone woman contender in a field of 10 presidential candidates dished out the day's most stinging remarks, pricking either the Arroyo administration or the one rival she had antagonized the most, Sen. Manny Villar.

French husband

If elected, Madrigal said, she would not let her husband Eric Jean Claude Valade be involved in government, though he may be addressed as "FG" for being a "French gentleman."

"That's as far as he goes," she said. Valade may not engage in any business deals or negotiations or else "I will cut his head, his tongue."

"I will quarter him if he becomes like the present FG," she said, apparently referring to First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, the President's controversial spouse.