Cocktales: Bongbong prefers Lady Gaga to Madonna, recalls Beatles' 'snub'
OTHER OPINION STORIES
InterAksyon.comThe online news portal of TV5
President Aquino "has shown no interest at all" in seeking closure or even in continuing the stalled government negotiations with the Marcoses over their alleged ill-gotten wealth, according to the late president's namesake son, Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., as he talked about Lady Gaga, Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and Oxford classmate, the assassinated Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Marcos, in a wide-ranging conversation with Cocktales, admitted to having been bewitched by Lady Gaga's voice, as was fellow Senator Ralph Recto, after watching the controversial artist perform the other week at the Mall of Asia.
"She definitely has a wider vocal range than Madonna," Marcos said, recounting that the pop superstar switched to belting out rhythm and blues in the latter half of her concert. The gentleman from Ilocos apparently is in snyc on the hyped rivalry between the two pop sensations even in the midst of impeachment hearings and Senate sessions.
The Marcos interview started on a more serious note: his thoughts about the just-concluded Corona impeachment, and the irony of him, Senator Joker Arroyo and Cory Aquino speechwriter Teodoro Locsin Jr. being on the same page on the issue.
"Even people who did not agree with my vote to acquit... seem to have appreciated that I had the strength of my convictions," Marcos said, in answer to a question about him incurring a political backlash for siding with the disgraced chief magistrate.
He also did agree with the observation that P.Noy seems to hate Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo more than the Marcoses now.
As in any infotainment talk show, the conversation turned to lighter topics like his sax-playing talent, the waist-length hair of his mother, and his being paid a talent fee of P1,000 when he was seven to play ! himself in his father's political propaganda movie "Iginuhit ng Tadhana."
"That's where I met (now Batangas Gov.) Vilma Santos," who played Imee Marcos, the senator said.
Marcos even volunteered a couple of funny anecdotes about his classmate, "Pinky" Bhutto, one when she on a lark joined Marcos and other classmates to a Swiss holiday and another when she was already prime minister.
Asked about the alleged Beatles' snubbing an invitation to visit the First Family in Malacanang during the Fab Four's Manila tour in 1966, Marcos said he finally got the real story after he met Beatles drummer Ringo Starr during Marcos' undergraduate days in Oxford.
Ringo's explanation? Watch Cocktales on Aksyon TV this Sunday at 9:30p.m.
On a final note: Check out the eyes of Marcos towards the end of the interview.
Co-hosts Daphne Osena-Paez and Cita Revilla think that a wistful Bongbong was nearly teary-eyed when he was recalling his happiest moments with his father.
Money-go-round
The United States Department of Agriculture has announced, in the wake of China tightening up on banana imports from the Philippines amid increased tensions in the West Philippine Sea, that it will consider allowing the importation of fresh bananas from its former colony.
Still, like Beijing, Washington has conditioned each putative shipment from Manila to pass US environmental guidelines.
The festering war on bingo casinos in Baguio has been elevated to a higher plateau, with no less than Bingo Milyonaryo principal Cesar Reyes turning out to be the winning bidder for the sequestered Menzi-Marcos compound on Outlook Drive.
Bingo Milyonaryo paid P93 million, two-and-a-half times the minimum asking price, for the 3,900-square-meter property. That works out to about P23,846 a square meter, not an economical price if the historic compound would be used purely as a vacation retreat as the neighborhood had been intended to be.
Heard through the grapevine
Former First Daughter Luli Arroyo-Bernas has elected to stay and give birth in California, hopefully to a bouncing baby boy.
Email: cocktales_tv5@yahoo.com
