PNoy… my friend and my President

“You ask too many questions, Mrs. Sec!” (I was called Mrs. Sec by the family of my Lady Boss President Cory.)

- DEEDEE M. SIYTANGCO

Or, how about his admonition that I stop nagging him with my not- sosubtle plea – “stop smoking already, please?” To which he replied, “Mrs. Sec, mom’s no longer here, so please stop.”

Since then, I never brought up the dangers of smoking with him ever again.

Over the eight months that he was undergoing thrice-a-week dialysis, I kept up a cheerful text exchange with him. On his condition, (“same, same. Going to hospital now”), accepting my offers of prayers, and once in a while, when I was too “kulit,” a stern text from him –“Enough na Mrs. Sec.”

His last text to me was four days ago when I asked him how he was feeling, “Just got home from dialysis. The same.”

Let me correct some nasty texts going around that he stopped going to dialysis because he was “frustrated and disappointed.”

One of his closest Cabinet secretaries and personal friends, Rene Almendras said: “Lies. That is not true and unfair. He missed a few sessions of dialysis because he wasn’t feeling too well.”