the president's premonition

One rainy day in September 1978, President Marcos had a premonition. With his son and daughter flying from Laoag to Manila on separate planes, something made the strongman shake and place a call to his children's security detail. Within minutes a game of musical chairs ensued as, breaking protocol, the presidential children were transferred onto a single plane.

My father, a member of the Presidential Security Group, moved to the other plane which crashed into a pond in Paranaque, beheading a mother who was watching television as it plowed through a row of houses.

Four months later, I was born.

This is the story I have been told about my Daddy Efren's death. I have seen pictures of the President and the First Lady at the funeral, both looking very somber. In one picture, the President is looking at my then three year old brother with a mixture of sadness and amusement as pregnant mom looks down at the casket.