Where My Heart Lies Between

Chapter 16: A Triple Birthday and Interview - Part II

- video plays -

Toni G: Today, I'm with a man who needs no introductions. *Bongbong chuckles softly in the background* We have with us, our one and only, Mr. Bongbong Marcos. *camera shifts image to a close-up shot of BBM sitting*

BBM: Hello, hello. So happy to be here.

Toni G: Thank you very much.

BBM: No, I thank you for taking the trouble.*chuckles*

Toni G: Thank you very much for allowing us into your beautiful home. You have a favorite part of your house?

BBM: Well, growing up as a student, I got used to living in one room. So I basically spend most of my time— when I'm with my house.

Toni G: What were you doing inside the room?

BBM: Driving myself crazy, basically. Well— well, when you're ill, you don't really mind the passage of time.

Toni G: You're talking about the time when you got COVID?

BBM: Yeah, when I got COVID. So, if you're feeling bad, you don't really worry about it. I knew I was better because I was getting bored— and just think, "When can they get out of here?"

Toni G: Do you have a morning routine, po?

BBM: Well, yeah.

Toni G: What time do you usually wake up?

BBM: I'm usually up by 7. But after cleaning my teeth, I go straight to the computer and check the messages— and answer my mails— and see what's happening, what they've missed from the night before.

Toni G: Ah, so hindi po kayo nagbe-breakfast, sir Bong?

BBM: I fast.

Toni G: I—Is that the intermittent fasting?

BBM: The intermittent fasting. *Toni nodded* Seems to work for me. Sometimes I forgot that I fasted and haven't eaten— and I'll go and exercise.

Toni G: What's your exercise po?

BBM: Uhh— gym. *licked his lower lip* Because my schedule is so crazy, I can't do it like before. Just have to stay fit, especially after COVID. It's my father's influence. My father was... before the term was invented, he was a health freak— and he would exercise at least an hour a day, sometimes twice a day.

Toni G: So you would see him exercise regularly?

BBM: *right hand making a movement* He would bring us to the gym and said, "Come." W—when we were little.

Toni G: Since you talked about your father, when you were born, he was already in politics.

BBM: Yes. He became a congressman in '47, and then senator in '57.

Toni G: That's the time you were born?

BBM: That's the year I was born. Yeah. Actually, I think he was always in politics — at least in his mind. Uhm... when I became governor of Ilocos Norte, I got to talk— since I was spending all my time, I got to talk some of his friends and the people who were around him when we were still living in Ilocos. And they said, "16 years old pa lang yan, may gabinete na yan." *chuckles*

Toni G: Ah, really?

BBM: *nods* Ah, oo! Talagang ah— my father is one of those— I suppose, the most single-minded person I've ever known. If it had nothing to do with his work, he just wouldn't spend time on it.