Daily TribuneIt is a meaningful day and it becomes even more significant if we look at it symbolically — one that promises hope for a country one in vision and purpose, one in direction and one in forgiveness and restitution.
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Today is a special day for this country. It is the birth anniversary of our First Lady, Liza Araneta-Marcos, whose presence in our midst has often been described as refreshing.
Indeed, what she has brought to this administration, being the wife of the Chief Executive of the land, transcends the stereotype image of the First Lady, as we have known it through decades — an appendage to her husband, to say the worst. At its best, a partner and an ally. In glowing terms, the secret weapon of her husband. If spoken by others, it could sound patronizing. But if declared by a husband, no less than the President of the Philippines, it could not be anything less than the truth.
Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was right and we all know he was right — Imelda Romualdez Marcos brought out the crowds that voted for her husband as president.
Our current First Lady, Liza, on the other hand, did not go around shaking hands, singing to the delight and fascination of a mesmerized crowd. She did not impress the prominent women with her grooming style, neither her hosting ability. She did not appeal for the masses' votes by employing the ploy of those in showbiz and the celebrity world, where many are not in private who they are in public.
What FL Liza presented to the voters was her true self. She was not to be bothered by having to put her best foot forward. She simply acted the way she would in any given situation, whether in public or private, campaign or no campaign.
It was, to be sure, quite a task to come out and be the center of attention. She had had it, of course, but as a law professor and that is beyond face makeup, couture clothes (whether authentic or a copy), and a trick or two, whether a song, a gesture of concern, or even tears flowing from the so-called depths of her heart.
Liza Araneta-Marcos, in the classroom and in the political hustings, simply spoke from what has always been between her ears. A smart lady who graduated from Ateneo de Manila, she proved her mettle in the all-culture all-color world that is New York. And that had endeared her to the people.
For real
Everything about this First Lady is real. And I mean from sticking out her tongue, when she could be at her most awkward, to being warm and gracious, even holding hands with someone she is meeting for the first time — and I mean myself, when I had my first FL coverage at Likhaan 2, where she was the darling, yes, the darling of the crowd who belonged to various cultural groups all over the country.
They cheered for her and they listened to her because she was not merely paying lip service to helping them. She was showing to the whole world what they were capable of doing. And this, she would further prove by inviting our young designers to dress up the ladies of the diplomatic corps in Filipiniana and to present their creations using indigenous Philippine textile, woven and embroidered, in a series of fashion shows where models mix with their clients and muses to show off Filipiniana finery. And when I asked to be photographed with her, she held my hand like I was long-lost kin.
It would seem that all these would be for mere show. Only those who would care to understand the First Lady beyond the obvious will realize she has gathered various ethnographic groups, people of varied sexual orientation, politicians of all color, together and do their part for the country. Even fashion designers, who would probably have differences and misunderstandings, which may be attributed to their high level of creativity (which you and I cannot understand unless we possess it), have united for the First Lady's cause — which is to help improve the lives of our craftsmen.
Impetus for caring
Liza Araneta-Marcos may well be the one woman who, in this 21st century, will offer us the impetus for caring, thinking and moving forward as one nation. Her background might explain her quiet quest for unity and reconciliation.
Being an Araneta, she belongs to a family whose members do not always agree on their political choices and decisions. Her father's uncle, Amading (who never wanted to be called "Don Amado), the man who gave us Araneta Coliseum, once upon a time the largest dome in the world, went on self-exile during the Marcos years. Talk about Don Luis, a distant relative but a relative nonetheless, who was among the most prominent of those who were demonstrating against the strong rule of the 1970s and the 1980s. His brother, too, Salvador, a 1971 Constitutional Convention delegate who opposed any extension to the Marcos term, stayed put in Canada during the final decade of the Marcos regime. And then, too, her mom's sister, Sari, married Pedro Cojuangco, Cory Aquino's brother.
I shall not go into the details of the other side of the family. But just to show the other side of the coin, two of her aunts were top Blue Ladies: one Araneta scion married a Marcos daughter, one was Undersecretary of Tourism in the Marcos era. And, of course, she married Bongbong Marcos and it has been said that not every one of her relatives and friends agreed to the match. For obvious reasons.
What Liza has achieved by marrying someone from the other side of the fence, so to speak, was to provide a proof, the best of them all indeed, that it is possible for two people coming from different ends of the political spectrum, to become man and wife, partners for life and parents of the same set of children.
Indeed, Liza Araneta-Marcos is the best proof that reconciliation is possible.
Today, we have a First Lady who has given us a new meaning to this day, 21 August, which, for many decades, has always been viewed as a day of infamy. Here is Liza Araneta-Marcos, quietly celebrating her birthday with her family, on the day that, 40 years ago, was declared by no less than the incumbent president, her father-in-law, "as the beginning of the end," referring to the end of his political supremacy.
It is a meaningful day and it becomes even more significant if we look at it symbolically, one that promises hope for a country one in vision and purpose, one in direction and one in forgiveness and restitution.
A wife and mother doing her best
I shall not try harder to convince you that our birthday celebrator is our new heroine. She would not want to be defined along those terms. She is simply a wife, a mother, who is doing her best, even as she performs her role as the First Lady of the Land, something that had been thrust into her life because she chose to marry this man who, she knew from day one, would not give her a peaceful, complacent and controversy-free life. She was marrying into "one big trouble," but their love for each other outweighed whatever they might have feared of the future.
There was no way of predicting what would eventually happen in 2022 — Bongbong Marcos becoming President of the Philippines.
Today, we are blessed with one First Lady who may well be instrumental in turning a new leaf for the Filipino people. We see in her one who is not on the stage for show, or one out to project an image that would favor her husband's political career. She was never a politician and she never saw herself a campaigner, a role that she reluctantly agreed to perform.
A First Lady true to herself
But here she is with us today and she is merely being her true self. When she thanks you for your presence, and she recalls how you first met somewhere, she is not saying those words with some hidden agenda in mind. There is something unimpeachable about this lady, she who teasingly stuck out her tongue at some friends who were calling her attention while she was trying to be calm and composed on her husband's inauguration.
This country is fortunate that we have a First Lady who is true to herself and to others, one who remains committed to the causes she has always believed in whether as a lawyer, a legislator and governor's wife, and as an educator — arts and culture, education, health and medical care, indigenous crafts and other equally relevant concerns.
Liza Araneta-Marcos is indeed a First Lady for the 21st century, one who stands by her husband, the President of the Philippines through good and challenging times, and one who looks beyond what divides us, and instead sees her fellow Filipinos collectively as the country's binding force for peace and progress.
On the First Lady, before Malacañang
Liza Araneta-Marcos comes from good stock. The fifth child of basketball Olympian Manuel L. Araneta Jr. and Milagros Cacho Gonzalez de Azaola, Mrs. Marcos' paternal grandmother, Rosario, was a Ledesma, an old prominent family known for its strong women, from Jaro, Iloilo City.
Her paternal grandfather, Manuel Sitchon Araneta Sr., is the elder brother of Negrense sugar and real estate magnate J. Amado Araneta. Her mother is the sister of Rosario Cacho Gonzalez de Azaola, who married Pedro Cojuangco, the eldest brother of former President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino who, of course, is the wife of Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, nemesis of Mrs. Marcos' late father-in-law, Ferdinand E. Marcos.
Even just a quick look at her genealogy would tell one the kind of family and life Mrs. Marcos had growing up.
She finished her law degree at the Ateneo, then proceeded to the United States where she took a graduate course in criminal procedure at New York University. It was while she was in New York that she met Bongbong Marcos.
When she fell in love with and eventually married Ferdinand Jr., she crossed over into the world of someone whose family was markedly divergent politically from her own. That she would do so despite — we imagine — not a few protestations from members of her own family — shows her independence of mind, and the strength of her personality.
Friends, relatives, acquaintances who knew her from way back, long before she embraced a life steeped in politics, had known Mrs. Marcos to be an intelligent, strong-willed person. With a kind heart.
"Liza has always been a generous person and always willing to help out," said one person who knew her well, but who asked not to be named. "But nakalista 'yan ha, so be ready when she asks you to do something for her," she said, in jest.
People who had been acquainted with her since back in the day will also tell you that that one very striking trait she possesses is her (apparently disarming) charm.
"She can charm her way into anything to get what she wants," said another person who knew her well, but who likewise requested anonymity. "She can use her charms to get what she wants. But beyond being charming, the reason why she usually obtains her goals and objectives is because she is very organized and a go-getter."
Former Foreign Affairs Secretary and now Ambassador to the Court of St. James and Special Envoy to China for Special Concerns Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. had remarked, after Mrs. Marcos' husband had just assumed the presidency, "If not for Liza, Bongbong would never have become President."
People who had been with the couple in the last national political exercise say that more than anyone else, it was Mrs. Marcos who had been the principal key in her husband's run for the presidency, from organizing a core group early on all through running a full-blown nationwide campaign that would end up with her husband emerging the victor, with a wide margin, in the elections.
Remarked one other person who knew her closely, "We're not surprised that she ended up where she is now; ever since I can remember, she's always told anyone who would listen that she would one day be rich and famous."
"We didn't see each other much in later years except for the occasional accidental meet-ups in places," said another person with whom she had good relations, particularly during her younger years. "But this much I can say, given her intellect and spunk, she struck me more as presidential material rather than First Lady."
