By Rey Ramirez

Mike and I practically grew up together. Sure, there were a few gaps in the years we spent together. We were together in elementary, but I transferred to Philippine Science High School, while he remained in UPIS. In college, though we saw each other in UP, I transferred university and finished my degree in the US. That being said, Mike and I had never felt estranged as friends. We would meet each other and catch up as old friends do, but we would talk without the awkwardness between long-lost friends. It’s close to being blood related, actually. And I don’t think that this case with Mike is unique to me. Mike has a bond with his friends that often runs deep.

If that’s how Mike is to his friends, you can just imagine how he is with his family. I have seen Mike’s silly side when he’s with friends, his serious side when it comes to national and governance issues. And when he entered married life and had children, I was glad to discover a new side of him: a mature and a protective side as a family man. Every father knows that it’s hard to juggle the demands of work and family and finding the right balance is a constant challenge, more so for a person like Mike who of late has to deal with all the issues against his reputation.



I have seen Mike with his kids and he really tries to put them first as a good parent should. When he left politics and entered the private sector, I think that’s when he learned to fully enjoy fatherhood. His recent private trip abroad with his family is actually a promise that has been kept at bay but finally made good. I’m glad that Mike had that chance to redeem himself, I hope successfully, in the eyes of his children, especially given the recent turn of events. Mike had been very upfront about his reason for pursuing the perjury case he filed against Lozada. It’s not just that he wants his name cleared after Lozada spun his sworn testimony in the senate to an entirely libelous account in the court of appeals, but mostly because he wanted to spare his kids the undue stigma of having an alleged kidnapper father.

And just when the local media was bracing for a big controversy, Mike returned after his trip with his family abroad with the news of withdrawing the case against Lozada. Some quarters have said that it was a matter of mere posturing for Mike and the Arroyo administration, though it was quite glaring that it was nearly impossible for him, as he has mentioned in his statement, to get an impartial trial with a prejudiced judge on the bench. At the heart of the matter, and I think this is also why he has refused to give interviews on the issue, is Mike’s concern for his family. The school year is about to begin, after all, and what with all the biased reporting he has been getting in media, it appears to be the best way, for now, to protect his family, especially his kids.