So the high point of the day-after was the viral vin d’honneur video clip of the First Lady in white terno taking the Senate Prez’s wine from his hand, gulping some of it down, then handing back the glass with nary a glance at Chiz, sabay turn away to be served her own glass by a waiter who enters frame from behind just then.
My first reaction was: OMG why didn’t she have her own glass?! And then: Hmm, close ba sila ni Chiz, and Liza wants us all to know? O hindi sila close pero uhaw na uhaw na si Ma’am and she was sure Chiz wouldn’t mind?
But wait, parang this all took place pala BEFORE the President’s speech after which he asked some 80 attendees headed by the diplomatic corps to join him in ceremonial toast “to stronger bilateral relations, the good health and prosperity of all present, and the continued progress of the Philippines’ — kung kailan, at saka lang, the drinking officially was to begin.
Kumbaga, korek me if I’m wrong, the First Lady broke protocol by imbibing, on cam yet, from someone else’s glass yet, before it was time.
What’s the harm? Well, an occultist might say the good vibes of the toast may have been somewhat diminished, as in, nausog, napangunahan kasi, knock on wood.
At the very least, it tells the world that this Mrs. Marcos is not a stickler for protocol, whatever the consequences. Whether that rubs off on the Prez or not is, of course, up to him.
Naturally the anti-Marcos trolls are having a field day, kesyo Liza helping herself to Chiz’s drink without a by-your-leave sent the message that she “owns” him (or something like that) and, even, that it was the Palace that got him elected Senate president (or something like that), and siyempre nauungkat din na he is close talaga to the Marcoses because his father was an original Marcos crony (agri sector).
Thing is, Chiz’s dad did his part for the Marcoses naman. In 2011 Sorsogon Rep. Salvador “Sonny” Escudero spearheaded the campaign to bury Marcos in Libingan ng mga Bayani and got 204 (of 284) members of Congress to sign the Resolution, which no doubt was a factor (among others) in Duterte’s decision to order the hero’s burial for Marcos soon after he was elected president in 2016. https://globalnation.inquirer.net/148397/148397
Kumbaga, may leverage din si Chiz. And baka naman puwedeng quits-quits na, as in, bayád na, clean slate na. Because Chiz needs all the leeway he can get to make the Senate even more independent and brave than it was back in the days of SP Salonga. We want him to succeed in shepherding his colleagues toward a consensus on, and heartfelt support of, what constitutes the “common good” … “common” referring to the masses, the majority, the people, and not the Senate, or Congress, or Judiciary, or the oligarchs or plutocrats, and certainly not the Palace.
Here’s a candid comment to Rod Kapunan’s Jun15 column “Escudero fixing Senate subservience, sanity” where Chiz is hailed for, among other things, suspending construction of the new senate building in BGC.
Maximillian80: That “waiter” incident in Malacanang did not make him look good and most certainly FL who unwittingly may have forgotten that she’s in a formal event with the eyes of media and voyeurs in attendance. Excuses and damage control made matters even more ridiculous. The body language showed who’s Boss ? Can Chiz prove otherwise? For FL, just do what GMA did by saying: I AM SORRY. https://disqus.com/by/disqus_uELSsmv3Lx/?
Kung tutuusin nga, it’s Liza who owes Chiz now, and he can be the gentleman who calls it quits just so he can truly move on and show us what the second generation is made of.
I’m not sure though about a GMA kind of I-AM-SORRY. Liza isn’t an elected official and maybe doesn’t owe us all an apology. Unless of course the diplomatic corps and our protocol officers at the Department of Foreign Affairs think she should, and dare say so.