A top Palace official — described as "the highest among the high" — was not invited to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s "intimate" birthday celebration Tuesday, multiple sources have told Daily Tribune.
But it was not just a matter of not being invited, the sources said, as the official was reportedly seen fuming after apparently being told not to enter the party venue.
The official's advance party was also turned away, the sources said, after being advised that their boss was not on the guest list.
In his most recent vlog, broadcaster Anthony Taberna said the buzz at the party concerned the official once rumored to have resigned or forced to resign from the Cabinet.
"That's all they wanted to talk about when people approached me," Taberna said in Filipino in his "Uncutunying" Facebook post on 14 September, referring to the official.
The organizer, according to Taberna, sent the official's advance party away. "He's not invited. He is neither a friend nor a family," Taberna said quoting the organizer.
Taberna said he tried looking for the "barred" official among the guests but he was nowhere to be found. Another lady official identified with the group of the "uninvited" Cabinet member, however, was present, according to the broadcaster.
"Although in the lunch at Malacañang, he was there, but for the intimate party for friends and family, he was not there," Taberna said in the vernacular, adding the talk at the party was that the official was getting the boot.
Taberna said the guests talked about the "changing of the guards" before President Marcos goes to New York. The replacement for the official would be a respected Ilocano lawyer, he added.
Meanwhile, retired Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin is reportedly being considered for a very high posting in the Marcos administration, an online news report said.
Bersamin's appointment was reportedly being seriously considered because of the controversies that surrounded another Palace official's "hand" in the botched illegal attempt to import 300,000 metric tons of sugar through the Sugar Regulatory Administration's Sugar Order 4.
The "disgraced" official would be spared the possibility of not getting the nod of the Commission on Appointment, The report said. thus the reported consideration of Bersamin in his place.
Bersamin is presently chairman of the Government Service Insurance System.
