Kris, Imee and the Bush twins: Why scandalous presidential daughters?

Why do presidential daughters seem to be often attracted to showbiz, salacious scandals and dangers like the moth flirting and flying close to the searing flame? Why the truancy, risk-taking actions, the devil-may-care attitude and failed marriages? Starstruck Kris Aquino prompted her mother, then President Cory Aquino, to invite Regal Films boss Mother Lily Monteverde to discuss her entering showbiz. Kris later broke her mother’s heart and had a child with the married and older actor Phillip Salvador. She is now again breaking her mother’s heart and making a mockery of her late father’s reputation with her topsy-turvy love life.

Presidential daughter Jo Ramos also tried a singing career and she failed in her marriage to actor Lloyd Samartino. Imee Marcos once dabbled in theater acting, movie production and also failed in her marriage to a married man her parents had disapproved of. In the US, the beautiful twin daughters Jenna and Barbara Bush of President George W. Bush were last year ticketed by Texas police for underaged alcohol drinking.

Saving Graces – Luli, Irene & Chelsea

One of the saving graces of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is her humble, low-profile and uncontroversial daughter Luli Macapagal Arroyo whom I met in Ateneo’s Guidon college paper. She is similar to the well-behaved and unassuming Irene Marcos, whom friends remember as a UP college student often dressed simply in white T-shirt and jeans. Another presidential daughter who was a role model of good behavior for the youth is Chelsea Clinton. She never got involved in any scandal in eight years in the White House. Chelsea’s clean and uncontroversial life as presidential daughter was all the more remarkable due to the fact that she comes from a notoriously dysfunctional family.

The ludicrious telenovela of former presidential daughter Kris Aquino falling for the playboy Mayor Joey Marquez was one of the many different topics discussed during the recent birthday dinner of my former Ateneo philosophy teacher and UP Law School valedictorian Atty. Jose Salvador "Zaldy" Mirasol. Others commenting on the philosophical and even psychological dimensions of this controversy and other national tsismis were Ateneo philosophy teachers Dr. Leo Garcia, Dr. Ramon C. Reyes, Dr. Tonette Angeles, Dr. Eduardo Calasang, Dr. Tomas Rosario, Jr. as well as young lawyers Ronaldo Ventura, Rico Tan, and their wives Ruth and Pona. With his face turning reddish after glasses of red wine, Dr. Leo Garcia was his eloquent and humorous self in expounding on the tragicomic love life of Ateneo graduate Kris Aquino. The two young and pretty wives of the lawyers were less charitable in their comments on Kris Aquino’s penchant for falling for older, philandering and married men such as Robin Padilla, Phillip Salvador and now the Mayor of Parañaque.

Snakepit & Divine Decadence

Ilocos Norte Congresswoman Imee Marcos, herself with her own share of minor scandals during her years as daughter of then President Ferdinand Marcos, reportedly commented that Kris Aquino‚’s recent controversial behavior makes her (Imee) "look like a nun." In her youth, Imee fell for sportsman Tomas "Tommy" Manotoc, who was already previously married to beauty queen Aurora Pijuan. Her parents President Marcos and then First Lady Imelda Marcos reportedly disapproved of the romance. One of the bizarre incidents in the martial law era was the mysterious disappearance of Imee’s boyfriend Tommy after they had eloped, then his subsequent alleged "rescue" by the military from the purported kidnapping by rebels. All three Marcos children are smart and good-looking, but it was Imee who earned a reputation as the more independent-minded child who once described Malacañang Palace as "a snakepit."

In her youth, Imee’s ambitious mother Imelda reportedly wanted her to marry a nephew of the Italian tycoon Gianni Agnelli. Another guy touted as a possible husband of Imee then was her former boyfriend Ricky Silverio, son of one of the wealthiest cronies of Marcos. Relative Beatriz Romualdez Francia said that the young Imee once made a flippant remark about "divine decadence."

Today, the intellectual and eloquent Imee has metamorphosed into a physically more beautiful woman. Estranged from her husband, she is now romantically linked to Singaporean entrepreneur Mark Chua, whose "Lolo Mao" restaurant in Greenhills is perhaps the only place you’d ever see Congresswoman Imee help serve food.

Abangan ang susunod na kabanata in the colorful telenovela lives of presidential daughters. Will Kris Aquino gain wisdom and emotional maturity when she returns from her US vacation? Or, tearfully and before the glare of mass media coverage, will Kris run into the arms of Mayor Joey Marquez, even if he cannot remarry yet? Will she be able to redeem the bruised honor of the Aquino family and a former President? What about Congresswoman Imee Marcos? Will she remarry? In Philippine politics, even in the lives of presidential daughters like Kris and Imee, truth is often stranger and more confusing than fiction.

What about Luli, will she learn from the lessons of Kris and Imee, and continue to be a positive role model for the youth?

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