Your cue, Imee
Published Sep 20, 2022 12:05 am
MEDIUM RARE
Jullie Y. Daza
In her younger years, Imee Marcos was already as politically astute as her father could wish his daughter to be when he described her as “my darling genius of a girl.” When exactly – date and time – she made the following candid observation is not as important as the substance of her words:
“Malacañang is a snake pit.”
Eventually, as legend goes, Imee rescued those five words from cliché-dom: “I take it back, it’s an insult to snakes.”
With her brother’s return to Malacañang Palace, it would be great to hear Senator Marcos’ updated reading of the climate in the seat of government, what with so much going on – pandemic, inflation, typhoon season, foreign exchange, etc. – but especially now that Vic Rodriguez resigned as executive secretary, only to create a new office that would have given him nearly equal powers as Chief Executive.
Alas, the plan was nipped in the bud by Juan Ponce Enrile, who saw through the plot as the President’s chief legal counsel, a lawyer who has never lost a single case, who has held public office in various capacities as customs commissioner, justice secretary, defense secretary, and Senate president; the coup leader who led the breakaway from Ferdinand E. Marcos that resulted in the family’s exile to Hawaii; the man who found himself as that same family’s defense counsel as soon as they were back on Philippine soil.
Decades later, the years flashing by like a movie, JPE would be appointed to the newly elected Marcos Jr.’s cabinet, the man who President Duterte had loudly called out as “the most intelligent mind in this room.” Currently, in TV images and photos chronicling the cabinet meetings of PBBM, the 96-year-old JPE is shown occupying the chair closest to his 65-year-old boss. (Another brilliant lawyer, also in his 90’s, is Estelito Mendoza, private citizen.)
In a dramatic turn last week, JPE would be defending his principal, Marcos Jr., this time from an administrative order signed by the President’s own “little president,” no less than the trusted ex-campaign spokesman who offered to “step down” as executive secretary in exchange for a more powerful office, “Presidential Chief of Staff” with an array of undersecretaries and assistant secretaries, the very same titles that Imee is allergic to: “isang katutak” of them.
Jullie Y. Daza
In her younger years, Imee Marcos was already as politically astute as her father could wish his daughter to be when he described her as “my darling genius of a girl.” When exactly – date and time – she made the following candid observation is not as important as the substance of her words:
“Malacañang is a snake pit.”
Eventually, as legend goes, Imee rescued those five words from cliché-dom: “I take it back, it’s an insult to snakes.”
With her brother’s return to Malacañang Palace, it would be great to hear Senator Marcos’ updated reading of the climate in the seat of government, what with so much going on – pandemic, inflation, typhoon season, foreign exchange, etc. – but especially now that Vic Rodriguez resigned as executive secretary, only to create a new office that would have given him nearly equal powers as Chief Executive.
Alas, the plan was nipped in the bud by Juan Ponce Enrile, who saw through the plot as the President’s chief legal counsel, a lawyer who has never lost a single case, who has held public office in various capacities as customs commissioner, justice secretary, defense secretary, and Senate president; the coup leader who led the breakaway from Ferdinand E. Marcos that resulted in the family’s exile to Hawaii; the man who found himself as that same family’s defense counsel as soon as they were back on Philippine soil.
Decades later, the years flashing by like a movie, JPE would be appointed to the newly elected Marcos Jr.’s cabinet, the man who President Duterte had loudly called out as “the most intelligent mind in this room.” Currently, in TV images and photos chronicling the cabinet meetings of PBBM, the 96-year-old JPE is shown occupying the chair closest to his 65-year-old boss. (Another brilliant lawyer, also in his 90’s, is Estelito Mendoza, private citizen.)
In a dramatic turn last week, JPE would be defending his principal, Marcos Jr., this time from an administrative order signed by the President’s own “little president,” no less than the trusted ex-campaign spokesman who offered to “step down” as executive secretary in exchange for a more powerful office, “Presidential Chief of Staff” with an array of undersecretaries and assistant secretaries, the very same titles that Imee is allergic to: “isang katutak” of them.