By now, you should have made up your mind as to who you want for the next President of the Philippines. In effect, you should have decided too, on your choice for the next First Lady or First Gentleman of the land. It’s a package deal.
The five presidential candidates went to the Philippine Star office on separate dates in the past weeks, and we asked them: What role will your spouse play when you become president?
Here are their answers:
She will cook for me, clean the house. Magkabit ng kulambo (Set up the mosquito net).”
These will be the roles of Rodrigo Duterte’s First Lady when he becomes the next president of the Philippines.
“Well, okay,”Duterte adds when pressed to name other tasks, ”she can help feed hungry children. We should have a really good program for that.”
And who will be his First Lady? ”It will be my daughter Sara,” replies Duterte, whose 30-year marriage to Elizabeth Zimmerman was annulled in 2000.
“Can I beg off?’ Sara replied to this. “If I win as mayor of Davao, I want to focus on my job. Gusto ko nakatutok sa trabaho. My family is there. The biggest challenge of being a politician is motherhood. Time management.” During her campaign tours for her dad in the provinces, Sara brought along her children Sharky, 7, and Stingray, 3, on the bus just to make sure she could still look after them. Also busy campaigning were Duterte’s sons Paolo and Sebastian.
Sara is married to lawyer Mans Carpio who she met in law school. Duterte cried when Sara passed the Bar exams. “He cried because I did better than him,” Sara joked on her Instagram post. Duterte, who is also a lawyer, has repeatedly said he got just passing grades of 75 in school.
The beautiful Sara recently shaved her head to show support for her father’s candidacy (#KalboParaSaPagbabago) and also to sympathize with her mother’s struggle with breast cancer as she will be losing her hair after undergoing chemotherapy and radiation (#NoHairWeCare).
Sara was first thrust into limelight as the feisty vice mayor of Davao who punched a sheriff four times in the face when he refused to grant Sara’s request for a two-hour reprieve during the demolition of shanties in Davao.
Once, she asked her dad: “Can my friends visit Malacañang if you become president? His reply:” Yes, they can also sleep there.”
To which Sara said: “Ayaw ko matulog doon kasi maraming multo (I don’t want to sleep there, because there are many ghosts.”)
If Sara is afraid of ghosts in Malacañang, Duterte’s common law wife, Honeylet Avancena, 46, and their daughter Kitty Duterte, 12, will willingly be there by his side in the haunted halls of Malacañang. Even if Honeylet has declared:”I don’t want to be in the limelight.”
Honeylet took up BS Biology, BS Nursing and Masters in Nursing and worked as a nurse in the United States where she gave birth to Kitty. Surely she can help in medical as well as feeding programs for children.
“He is projected as tough, but he has a soft spot for women and children,” says Honeylet. “Mababa din ang luha niya (He easily cries). He cries when he remembers his parents and visits their grave during Christmas and their birthdays. He becomes teary-eyed when his favorite song, You Raise Me Up by Josh Groban, is played.
During pensive moments, Honeylet would let Duterte read the Bible, and his favorites are Psalm 23 and Psalm 51. “His prayers are always selfless. Whatever be God’s will, that’s what he would say. “
Honeylet even lets him bring a Bible especially when he travels.”I’m scared everytime he rides a helicopter. God, just bring him back to us alive.”
Grace Poe on Neil Llamanzares: His main role is really to take care of our family.
Neil Llamanzares: Hackers, beware!
Chief inspiration. This will be the role of Teodoro Misail Neil Llamanzares when he becomes the First Gentleman to President Grace Poe.
“Kailangan naman, di ba (It’s a must, right)?” Grace says with demure laughter. “So I said, it should be for both of us. We should both work out because we have both neglected ourselves during this campaign.” From 118 pounds, her weight went down to 98. Dressed in her trademark white, Poe still looks her usual poised and pretty self.
Seriously, Grace then declares: “Neil’s main role is really to take care of our family. Our kids (Brian, Hanna and Nikka)are still pretty young, and I think he’s doing a good job at that. He’s very patient. My kids love him more because he’s more permissive than I am.”
Neil and Grace were high school sweethearts before they got married in 1991. Neil’s parents were studying in the United States when he was born. He served in the US Air Force from 1988 to 1992. Grace was a pre-school teacher in America when Neil graduated from the George Washington School of Business in 1998. They sold their four-bedroom house before they returned to the Philippines in 2006.
“As much as possible, Neil tries to stay away from the limelight. He goes only to official functions where a family member really needs to represent me. As to what role he can play , he is not a lawyer so he can’t really be my adviser on legal matters. He’s in IT (Information Technology) so maybe he can make sure that all of our files in Malacanang are not hacked, ha ha.”
Grace adds:” You know, he has always said that it really makes a difference when things are manufactured in the Philippines. You’ll be actually giving jobs, and this is very important to him. But he will be doing this in his private capacity.”
As Poe continues to to stay up in the surveys, her rival camps brand Neil as an American boy in Malacañang. “He has renounced his American citizenship, it is in process,” says Grace.
Just an American-born boy with a Filipino heart and soul.
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