Bongbong Marcos: I’m standing by it—Grace Poe’s my ‘sister’

Senator Bongbong Marcos. AP FILE PHOTO

Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has only one word to describe Senator Grace Poe: “sister.”

“Wala. Pinaninindigan ko na e (I am already standing by it),” Marcos said in jest when he played “fast-talk” during a weekly forum at the Senate on Thursday.

An urban legend that Poe is an illegitimate child of the senator’s father and namesake, the late President Ferdinand Marcos with former actress Rosemarie Sonora, has become a running joke for the two lawmakers until Sonora’s own daughter, actress Sheryl Cruz, did not find the joke funny.

READ: Bongbong Marcos gives ‘brotherly advice’ to Grace Poe

Poe was found in a church in Iloilo and was later adopted by the late Fernando Poe Jr. and veteran actress Susan Roces. Her being a foundling is now one of the subjects of the disqualification cases filed against her in a bid to stop her from joining the May 2016 presidential race.

Senator Marcos also described in one word other presidential bets : “brilliant” for his presidential running mate, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, “friend” for both former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, and “rising” for Vice presidential Jejomar Binay, who topped the latest presidential survey of the Social Weather Stations.

He also has one word for his rivals in the vice presidential race:

For Poe’s running mate, Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero: “son of my friend”;

Roxas’s running mate, Camarines Sur Representative Leni Robredo: “candidate”;

Duterte’s running mate, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano: “partymate”;

Binay’s running mate, Senator Gringo Honasan: “matapang (brave)”; and

Independent candidate, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV: “matapang.”

Asked to describe President Benigno Aquino III, Marcos said: “He’s retiring”

He described Edsa revolution as “history,” the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law as “dead,” and the May 2016 elections as “critical.”

The senator’s one-word description for his father and mother, Ilocos Norte Representative Imelda Marcos, was “idol.”

READ: Bongbong Marcos: My family is ‘exceptional’

Asked to described himself, Senator Marcos said: “Brilliant, mabait, mahusay, matalino, perfect. Sino pa ang magtataas ng bangko nu’n kung hindi ako.”

(I am brilliant, nice, good, smart, perfect. Who else would praise me but myself?) IDL