Skarbie

The First Meeting

July 1, 2022 - Office of the President, Malacañang Palace

Jarosław Kaczyński has been left waiting for over 30 minutes for the arrival of the President of the Philippines. His meeting with her was supposed to start at 2:00 in the afternoon but it is now 2:35 in the afternoon. According to his secretary, Basia, the last time that the President was seen was at the newly-inaugurated headquarters of the Philippine National Railways which was in Quezon City - about an hour away from the city of Manila, where her official residence and office is located in.

Fortunately, Jarosław was occupied by the stray cat that he had been keeping since he found the said cat hiding under a drawer in the guest room that was assigned to him in the Palace. He had named the cat Marszalek after the rank held by Jozef Pilsudski, the founder of the 2nd Republic of Poland.

"Basia, has she called you up to update me on her whereabouts?" Jarosław now asked his secretary after having enough of waiting way longer than he should for an important meeting to begin.

"She's only sent a text message through her personal assistant." Basia replied, "The text message says that she won't be here for another ten minutes because she is stuck in traffic."

"The traffic must be so bad here, huh?" Jarosław asked, "I noticed that when we were coming here on the way from the airport a day ago."

Just then, Sara Duterte-Carpio, the Vice President, entered the office, hoping to be able to catch the President so that she could brief her on the proposals that the Office of the Vice President wants her to go over.

Instead, she found Jarosław and his secretary, along with an employee from the Polish Embassy who was to serve as his translator.

"Sorry about that." Sara said, upon noticing that the President's guests are still around - which means that it's not the right time for her to visit her office.

"No...no," Jarosław said in response, "Jest okej." he added as he did a thumbs up to convey his message more accurately.

Sara on the other hand only understood that he said No twice in English, before saying something in Polish and then Okay while doing a thumbs up. She assumed this meant that he didn't mind that she was in the President's office at that time.

"Okay..." Sara said in response, "I'll just leave these documents for the President to go over."

Jarosław nodded in agreement. Who was he to send the Vice President out of the office anyway. It wasn't even his office.

Sara left the documents in the President's desk, after which, she noticed that Basia was scrolling on Twitter in her iPad. Images of Leni Robredo taking selfies with random people in the new PNR headquarters were all over the feed.

"Oh, she's busy wasting her time taking selfies." Sara remarked at what she saw, "That's why she's coming in late."

The Polish Embassy translator listened intently to Sara and then translated everything he heard so that Jarosław would understand her remarks.

"That's rude of her." Jarosław said in a thickly-accented English after the translator spoke to him.

"I feel so sorry for you, Mr. Deputy Prime Minister." Sara told Jarosław, "I hope this doesn't make you think of my country any less. Many people in this country tried their best to stop her from winning but she managed to bribe the majority of the electorate into voting for her."

Sara then walked away in silence and closed the door to the President's office silently.

Jarosław then looked at Basia and said, "So this is why we were met by many activists on the way to the inauguration site yesterday."