Before Marcos, there was Bongbong

Before politics, the pressures of public life, and the Presidential Palace, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. remembers a simpler time — when he played in the rain with neighborhood children in San Juan long before it became a city.

The President shared the childhood memory in an interview by singer-songwriter Gary Valenciano on the latter’s “Unshaken with Gary V” podcast, recalling afternoons spent with children living in an informal settlers community near his family’s home on Ortega Street.

Beside their house was an empty lot where the children would gather to play.

“I suppose you now call them informal settlers. I think it’s the politically correct term but those were my playmates,” Marcos said.

One memory stood out.

After coming home from La Salle Green HIlls one rainy day, Marcos headed straight for the vacant lot to join his friends.

“And we just had the best time, we had absolutely the best time. And I remember that it was one of the fun times in my childhood,” he recalled.

The fun, however, came with a warning from his aunt who came with an umbrella and scolded the muddy children.

“She said, ‘What are you doing? You’re going to get sick!’”

Looking back, the now President said he could not explain why such an ordinary moment remained so vivid.

“I couldn’t believe that just playing in the rain with all those kids would be that much fun, but it was. And I never forgot it,” he said.

“I know it’s a silly thing, it’s quite childish, but I really remember it very, very well,” he added.

Politics was never the dream

Interestingly, Marcos said politics was not something he aspired to as a child.

He recalled wanting to become a policeman or a firefighter after reading stories about people in those jobs.

Having seen the sacrifices his parents and others around them made because of politics, he said he deliberately wanted a different path.

“The funny thing is, I’ll tell you I knew I wasn’t going to be a politician,” Marcos said.

“I saw how difficult it was, the sacrifices that my dad had to make, my mother had to make, and the other people around them had to make. So I said, ‘Hindi ko yata kaya ‘yun.’ (I don’t think I could do that). I’ll do something else entirely.”

Then came the music

Music, meanwhile, opened another world for the young Marcos.

While studying in England in the 1970s, he recalled hearing Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” playing inside a school dormitory while he was inspecting rooms.

“I couldn’t believe that you’re allowed to make music like that. I said, ‘Pwede ba ’yan?’ (Is that possible),” he recalled.

The experience pushed him to explore music beyond the familiar.

“From then on, I started to listen to everything that came out. Everything,” Marcos said.

Among the bands he discovered was Jethro Tull, whose music inspired him to learn the flute. He eventually played in an orchestra and later picked up the saxophone.

His interest in music went beyond performing. Marcos said he studied music theory, immersing himself in the craft as much as in the sounds.

From muddy afternoons in a San Juan vacant lot to discovering Lou Reed and Jethro Tull in England, the President’s recollections offered a glimpse of a younger Marcos far removed from the formalities of Malacañang — a youngster who simply wanted to play, listen and discover.