Bongbong Marcos was 21 years old when Andrew Gold’s bouncy pop song “Never Let Her Slip Away” was on heavy rotation on Manila’s radio airwaves.
On the night of 20 August, the President — along with his sons Sandro, Simon and Vinny, and a select number of family and friends — pulled off a surprise birthday party for First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos, the highlight of which had him singing “Never Let Her Slip Away.”
He prefaced the song with a short and sweet spiel: “To my beloved wife, words have already been said as to how valuable she is as a person, and how remarkable she really is. Sometimes it’s really hard to believe that she did me a favor of marrying me.”
The song’s lyrics may or may not directly relate to the couple’s love story. Nonetheless, President Marcos must really be taken by the tune’s hook lines: “She’s good to me/And it would really make me happy/To never let her slip away…”