Sexed up call, false teeth and other FVR anecdotes

 

One of the more amusing anecdotes that Money-Go-Round has heard about the legendary work ethic of the now late President Fidel V. Ramos came from one of his Cabinet secretaries.

The Cabinet member, who shall remain unnamed, was exchanging stories about FVR with a group of reporters during a lull in one of the out-of-town presidential trips.

The amusing, if indelicate, incident involved the Cabinet secretary volunteering, quite proudly, that he once received a dawn call from FVR, who wanted to counter-check something in his report, while he and his wife were in the throes of a bedroom rodeo.

Hearing this from a nerdish bureaucrat, the bunch of then young newsmen looked at one another and chuckled, too embarrassed to press the Cabinet secretary for additional details.

Even when he was military chief and later defense secretary, FVR enjoyed the company of journalists, often inviting them in his provincial travels, a tradition that he continued even when he was already president.

For what had become an almost weekly out-of-town trip, one or two senior newsmen, not assigned to the so-called presidential beat, would be asked to join FVR in the presidential Fokker.

Frankly yours truly was mystified why he had received one such invitation, a rare honor, from out-of-the-blue. We could only think - oh, dear Lord - it must be the Rosemarie Arenas columns that had gotten us in FVR's radar.

Years earlier, while covering Cory Aquino in Malacanang, we had already glimpsed another, prickly side of the Edsa 1 hero.

While being ambush-interviewed after meeting Cory,  FVR snapped at one female stringer for a foreign newswire, shushing her up, before irritatedly asking her with his finger pointed at the now ashen her, "Bakit ikaw na lang ang tanong ng tanong? Pagbigyan mo yung iba!"

Much to our relief, FVR was all business this time, greeting us and another invited foreign journalist "Good morning, gentlemen" as he took his seat by a small table, along with a box of documents by his side.

Throughout that one-and-a-half flight to Mindanao, FVR pored over the documents, pen in his hand, highlighting passages and scribbling notes, as two journalists a seat away observed.

Apparently, the unspoken rule in the presidential presence is much like how a commoner is expected to behave before the Pope and the Queen of England, that is, do not talk unless spoken to.

Alas, the much-hoped presidential small talk, and hoped-for exclusive, never came.

The only memorable quote that yours truly can remember was when the presidential plane landed and FVR, as he stood to disembark, blurted out, "It's showtime!"

Still, FVR never forgot his ink-stained guests during his speech, after presenting his Cabinet entourage one-by-one, the president then introduced the journalists to their discomfiture to the audience. "Palakpakan ho natin sila," FVR mischievously implored the crowd.

On another provincial trip, in Quezon for the launch of the Lopez-Catanauan road project, it was FVR's turn to be discomfited.

As he was stressing a point during his trademark "kaya-natin-ito" spiel, FVR's dentures shot out of his mouth.

Thankfully, the still agile president caught the masticular missile, as the audience gasped and then laughed. After hastily snapping back the choppers, FVR grinned and gamely joined the snickering.