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GETTING TO KNOW 'MIKEY' MACAPAGAL-ARROYO
(By Rogelio Constantino Medina)

Quezon City, Feb. 5, 2000 - SHOWBIZ - He has the good face and charming smile. He has intelligence and true grit. He carries a prominent name that girls could very well introduce to their parents.

Juan Miguel Macapagal-Arroyo, or Mikey to showbiz folks, has appeared in some movies. He recently did Di Ko Kayang Tanggapin with April Boy Regino and Ciara Sotto in the lead roles.

He first appeared in a Robin Padilla movie, entitled Anak, Pagsubok Lang Iyan, produced by FLT Films. This was followed by Santo Santito: Anak ni Baby Ama, also produced by FLT Films, with his cousin Michael Rivero in the title role. Other films he did were with Ronnie Ricketts in Hawak Ko Ang Buhay Mo and with Lito Lapid in Tapatan ng Tapang and Largado.

In Largado, he enacted the role of an NBI agent in a special force. With him were father-and-son-tandem of Lito and Mark Lapid as NBI agents.

“Our mission (in the movie) is to look for the hired killer (played by Roi Vinzon). We have a difficult time arresting him for he (Roi) is a master of disguises and he knows electronics. His role is like that of Bruce Willis in The Jackal,” explained Mikey, a 30-year-old bachelor.

He also appeared in a Deo Fajardo movie entitled Ang Maton at Ang Showgirl, with Michael Rivero, Rita Magdalena, and presidential nephew George Estregan Jr., and he played the role of a bartender cum police informer. His next movie is in the works.

Mikey finished college at the Ateneo de Manila University with an AB Interdisciplinary Studies degree and took his Master in Business Administration (MBA) special program at the prestigious University of California in Berkeley. He went back to the Philippines to help his mom, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, in the Senate. His mom was then a senator, but now is the country’s first women vice president and social welfare secretary.

Off-camera, Mikey works as desk officer of Region III at the Office of the Vice President, but he does not get a salary. Instead, it is his dad’s private firm where he gets his monthly salary from.

Despite being born affluent, Mikey has remained simple, humble, and unassuming. He tries to do good to people and to make this world a better place to live in. For him, money, wealth, and position are just temporary. One can have it one day and it can be gone tomorrow.

He himself wants to get actively involved with the NGOs to facilitate bringing social services to the barangay level, especially to those who have less in life. He wants to be a role model to the youth.

Even if he is the Vice President’s son, Mikey still lives a normal life. His dream is really to see the underprivileged improve their lives. And he promises to do it with faith, determination, and dedication. Just like his mom and his late grandfather, former President Diosdado Macapagal or fondly “Cong. Dadong”, the poor boy from Lubao, Pampanga.

“When my lolo was still alive, we would go to Pampanga together. When he was invited in a house, he would eat any food laid on the table. And we would use our hands. Then, he would want to know if there’s any problem or how he could help them. He was really pro-poor. He really helped them without expecting anything in return. His heart was really for the masses and he loved Pampanga with a passion,” he vividly reminisced while at his late grandmother’s home in Forbes Park, Makati City.

Mikey was the last grandson to see his beloved grandpa alive. The ex-President passed away sometime in April 1997. During his grandfather’s burial entourage at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, he was the only grandson included in the presidential car, aside from his parents and grandmother, the late Dra. Evangelina Macaraeg-Macapagal. His other siblings, Luli and Dato, rode another car, and the other grandchildren rode a van.

When Mikey was still young, he was given by his grandpa plenty of books. His grandfather also ingrained in him the principle “Do what is right, do the best and God will take care of the rest.” He admitted that his grandfather has been his inspiration since his childhood. He wanted to do it on his own little way, in memory of his grandfather who was born poor.

When Mikey’s mother took her oath of office at the historic Barasoain Church on June 30, 1998 as Vice President, he said that his grandmother handed the Holy Bible to his father, Atty. Jose Miguel Tuason Arroyo who would hold the Holy Bible during the oath-taking ceremonies. That was the same Holy Bible that his grandfather used when he became vice president. It was unfortunate that his grandfather did not see “my mom become Vice President.

Mikey also values friendship. For him, it teaches three basic things. “Loyalty, sincerity and consistency. No matter how far apart and no matter how less we talk with each other,” said he with much gusto. For him, one of the surest ways to find happiness and contentment is to “devote one’s energies toward making someone else happy.”