20
Questions for the Imee-llenium
Woman Today, May 5, 1999
by Niña San Jose
1.
How do you picture yourself at age 60?
Puhleeeze! 'Bagets forever,' that's me - I will die with my Kabataang
Barangay t-shirt and my rubber shoes on, okay?
2. Who is your favorite world figure? Why?
Vaclav Havel,
because he is a playwright and a poet - like every self-respecting Marcos,
including my father before me, I am both a playwright manqué and
a poetry junkie. So much cooler than a dreadful politician… and his
wife is a doll, just the best actress ever - we also have a family tradition
of drop-dead gorgeous political wives who also happen to be major divas,
if you remember my mum…
Also Indira Gandhi, because she was a political kid-those horrific stories
of her childhood when she would open the front door to her house and say,
"I'm sorry, my father's not in, nor is my mother. Everyone's been
taken to jail and I'm the only one home.'"
Maybe Maggie Thatcher becaause she is so hideously out of fashion, like
my family - so vociferously politically incorrect and yet quite blisteringly
brilliant. Although my brother thinks she is terrifying and that the only
human ting he considers vaguely human about her is her weight problem…
3. You're obviously sexy (even women find you so), but what do you think (is it about you that) attracts men most to you?
!@#!?%^^$!!? Whatever, ask - someone else that question, please…It's just too weird! I thought of chopping all my hair off because I couldn't be Little Mermaid forever…this is my last chance to have short hair before the end of the century, so I wouldn't have to go vamping into the Year 2000…Someone said Gloria Steinem was the thinking man's sex symbol - I think, if compelled, I would prefer to be the sexy man's think symbol. Whatever…
4. What is the first thing you think of upon waking up in the morning? The first thing you do?
I certainly do not think in the morning, thank you very much, that would be way stressful, at least not before the first of two daily coffees. The first thing I do? Hey, are we accountable even for our daily ablutions as 'Kagulang-gulang na Mambubutas'? Oops, maybe the other Congresistas won't appreciate that little turn and twist of phrase.
5. How do you unwind at the end of a busy day?
Usually, I pass out, that's it. I am acquiring a reputation for being anti-social, not a good way to be as a politician. But it is unfortunately entirely merited, as I am a lazy socializer. My cousins attempted making me ballroom dance, but the DIs all lost their jobs trying to teach me - I am thoroughly stressed by all that counting! I'm always running without sleep - otherwise, if I can sty awake, I like to watch obscure films, or that other not-so-secret weakness, junk-read fashion and interiors magazines - sometimes all you want is fast food, because its all you can handle.
6. If you were to choose between a penniless man you love and filthy rich one you don't love, who would you rather marry? Why the choice?
What choice?! Hello?!! There is no choice!!! Please, I am usually clueless, but I know the answer to this one, because there can be no other: the one you love, silly, always and forever - you probably won't love him always and forever - just that I would choose that way every time, with unremitting, entirely predictable consistency. Why? Is that a question - because I have to, I don't know any other way. Love may not conquer all, I just don't know how to get by, much less conquer anything, without it.
7. Who is the woman you admire most? Why?
I don't know - there are quite a few. Several friends and I determined we were for sure intellectually lesbian, because way many women we thought were unbelievably cool, and too many mer serious losers. Women for sure lead much more interesting lives - and those struggling away in daily drudgery still did so with immense selflessness and heroism. I think Ilocanas are something else - one day someone will write about this race of farming Gabrielas. And of course, there is my mother, the unsinkable Imelda - talk about you can't keep a good woman down - is she awesome or what?
8. For women of your stature, it may be a crime to have crushes, but do you have one? Like Tom Cruise or Prince Charles, maybe? Who is he, and why?
I hate Tom Cruise, totally despise him - have not believed in him in any role since 'Risky Business.' On the other hand, his wife Nicole was hysterical in that unlikely film 'To Die For.' And my mum was friendly with the Prince - how could you have a crush on Mummy's buddies? Maybe I was Nineties before the nineties - maybe I was always just too nasty and too critical to have a crush, worse yet to actually admit it in public. A hint: I do actually suspect I have a weakness for quiet baritones - meaning, the proverbial silent type whom you have to sit up and listen to when he does finally speak, preferably with a quiet low voice.
9. What can you say about this whole Clinton-Lewinsky affair?
Nothing new for sure…the question only remaining - we have in Manila any number of Clintons and Monica wannabes - so who's the local Linda Tripp? Yeah, yukk…Also, that no Filipina in her right mind would have kept that blue dress around without washing it…And finally, the lesson really is that Baba Wawa a.k.a. Barbara Walters is the greatest - she's the only one smiling in all this. My heart bleeds for Chelsea, but my heart always bleeds for Presidential children…Question for you, TT: Why does Hillary do and say the right things all the time, and yet leave me cold? Anyway, our man Bill is one lucky blankety-blank like James Snakehead said during the campaign, 'It's the economy, stupid!' - and so it is…Really lucky the numbers turned around during his watch if you ask me…
10. The doctor says you have barely a month to live - how would you spend it? (Seriously now…)
"My kids, no doubt about it. We would go away and Mega-bond - that's all. My mum, bro, sis also. By the way, this question stinks and you really shouldn't ask it too often, it's rude…"
11. What do you think can fulfill you - to the point of saying "This is it, maligaya na ako, wala na akong hahanapin pa!"?
Ano? Hindi pa ako tikbak, utang na loob…At walang balak matikbak pa…I am very curious, and I like to try new stuff all the time, and must at every given minute have several hundred projects going…so therefore it ain't gonna happen. My dad said that if happiness sat in my lap I wouldn't know what to do with it. Do you have any idea what he could have possibly meant?!
12. Describe the woman you can never be - or never want to be.
My sister. There is this classical quality about women that men in Victorian novels carry on about: they keep referring to their Immortal Beloveds as 'serene.' I think of Irene as a Victorian heroine; I have no doubt that is her own self-image, what with her second name being Victoria anyway, and all the trivia she knows about the nineteenth century. I suppose the nineties equivalent is all the schmaltz in these middle-aged romances that are so in demand of late swooning, 'When I met her, I felt I had come home' or something I that…Let me tell you, I don't get it…
13. Is there in our country's political arena whom you think is good Presidential material?
No comment. Suffice to say, that I wasn't crazy about the first and last woman President.
14. If you could spend two weeks alone with Your Man, what place on earth would that be?
Travel is my one true vice - so definitely, some place no one ever wants to go to, where I've never been before…In fact, whoever he is needn't even come with me!
15. Do you have any unexploited talents you wish you could use for the good of others? What are they?
I don't know if it will do anyone any good - but I must one day write. I promised my father long ago I would tell this story, not that I would run for office, not that I would fight in courts to vindicate him. That was all he wanted, the only thing he made me promise - to tell his story.
16. What quality in you makes you most attractive/interesting to people?
Ask them, I' m in Congress most days, which makes me feel singularly unattractive.
17. Describe your relationship with God.
Pass.
18. If you could change anything about your childhood, what would that thing be?
I liked my childhood - I mean I like it now, on hindsight, because it has a freakishly melodramatic, sepia-loneliness bout it. You know, all lone in the Palace - even if there were so many people all the time. But I don't think I had much fun then, enduring it. I want my kids to grow up with great abounding normal-ness, if that's possible with me being their mum and all. It bothers me that in Manila they no longer take public trnsport, but I still fine them for A's and C's - this mum' prefers straight B's, dead-on middling is fine."
19. Do you have a particular weakness? A forbidden something you find irresistible, a sin you keep committing, etc.? What is it?
Chocolate - any sugar is my poison. It's mother-love, the French say. Can't get eno,' and am semi-psycho without dessert at the end of every meal, and in between, and…if you can't resist temptation, make it a habit is what I say.
20. Who's your most trusted friend or confidante?
I have very few friends, and they are usually related to me, or have nearby for a long, long time. It's been a real roller-coaster ride, and not too many have stuck around. Hey, don't blame anyone - I would have jumped off many times myself if I could've! What's it they say: 'If it doesn't kill you, it will make you stronger'? You've got to be real strong to stay friends with me, I guess.