MANILA, Philippines — The first lady, Liza Araneta-Marcos, is not involved in making political decisions, including presidential appointments, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said in an interview on Monday.
.“Zero. She really has no input on that. The first lady helps in terms of the organization. She is actually very, very good at that — organizing which office, how the workflow goes, where the documents go through. She’s a well-trained lawyer. So she’s very good at that,” Marcos said when asked about how involved his wife was in choosing his Cabinet members.
“But that’s the extent of it. We don’t talk about policies together. I mean, she’ll comment. She’ll generally say: ‘That looks good. That doesn’t look good. I don’t know why you’re doing that.’ That’s it,” Marcos added.
He admitted, however, consulting the first lady on legal matters.
“Not political decisions. Legal, I will ask her — whenever there is a legal question. I am not a lawyer. So I need an expert opinion. She’s right next to me most of the time. So I could turn to her,” the president said.
“I’m very lucky. I think I have the best legal representation of any president. I have a former chief justice as my executive secretary. I have [Juan Ponce Enrile] who is working as legal counsel to the president. And between all of these experts and legal luminaries, that’s the only time that the discussion may include Liza,” he added.
Earlier this month, Araneta-Marcos said in a video message that she had “nothing to do” with the appointment of government officials, specifically the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
She also gave a warning to those purportedly using her name to secure an appointment in the government, saying she was “sick and tired” of people doing it.
Not grooming son for the presidency
Marcos also denied that they were grooming their eldest son, Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos, for the presidency.
“No. We’re not grooming him for anything. He’s grooming himself. He has decided on this career in politics. He will handle it the way he does,” he said.
“There’s not some long-range plan that one day Sandro is going to be the president. He will laugh in your face if you tell him that. Even talks of the presidency would be so, so premature. It’s not something that we plan.”
The neophyte lawmaker was with the president during some of his travels abroad, including the working trip to Davos, Switzerland.
However, Marcos explained that his son’s participation in Davos was because he authored the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund, which was soft-launched on the world stage during the 2023 World Economic Forum.