Jiggy & Jonty Cruz on Cory, Noynoy, comics & getting busted
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Grandkids of Filipino heroes: Jiggy and Jonty Cruz with their lola Cory Aquino, mom Ballsy, and dad Eldon Cruz
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How do you live a “normal” life and cope with the
expectations people have of you if you happen to have modern-day heroes as
grandparents, and the president of the country as your uncle? Here are 10
things you should know about Jiggy and Jonty Aquino Cruz.
1. They swear they
never got special treatment in school, but they did find it awkward when
classmates would look at them whenever Ninoy or Cory’s name would be mentioned.
“In History class, we had a project na presidents. I was
told, ‘Jiggy, bawal ka sa Aquinos, bawal ka sa Marcos.’ Or other times naman,
classmates would rely on me if it’s an Aquino or a Marcos thing, kasi dapat
alam ko na. But come on, hindi ko naman alam lahat about history,” the older
Cruz brother recalls. Jonty shares a different story. “In Grade 5, when we took
up (the) EDSA (Revolution), yung goal ko i-perfect yung quiz. I got the quiz
back, minus one ako. I couldn’t believe it. I should know this. Nakipag-debate
ako sa teacher ko and I reasoned out bakit dapat payagan yung answer ko. Good
thing I had a book as proof, so naging perfect yung quiz,” he shares with a
smile.
Jonty recalls having a professor in college who was not a
fan of his uncle Noynoy Aquino, who was then campaigning. “He kept on referring
to my tito for negative things. So after class, I didn’t say who I was, but I
asked him, ‘What do you have against Noynoy and the Aquinos?’ And I asked who
he was going to vote for. He’s not a registered voter pala. Nag-goodbye na lang
ako.”
Both Jiggy and Jonty went to Ateneo de Manila from prep all
the way to college. Jiggy says his history grades averaged around 90, and Jonty
says his averaged around 85.
2. The moment they
were born, they had Presidential Security Guards, three each. When P-Noy became
President, they were again assigned PSGs, but now, one each.
Jiggy was only months old when the late Cory Aquino became
President, and Jonty was born three years after. “We grew up staying in
Arlegui, I remember a lot of men would accompany us to school,” Jiggy says. “I
don’t remember much, but I remember some stuff like the rooms we stayed in,”
Jonty shares. They did get the chance to play on the street as kids, right in
front of Arlegui. “I do remember going down a really big basement. Naglalatag
sila ng mattresses, and I asked, ‘Why are we sleeping here?’ It was a coup
attempt, yun pala people were trying to kill us,” Jiggy recalls.
When asked if there were things they didn’t get to enjoy as
kids because of who they were, they both said: “More now.” “When our tito
became President, we told our parents, ‘Kuya and I don’t need guards, all we do
is buy comics and watch movies.’ We don’t go to clubs or anything,” Jonty
shares. “Sana
wala kaming guard, but technically we’re the first family so we have to be
assigned guards for his peace of mind,” Jiggy says. Jiggy has earned the trust
of his PSG, so much so that they give him distance when he is out with his
girlfriend. Jonty, currently single, is in a different situation. “I went on a
date last week. I told them, ‘O, pwede na kayo umuwi,’ and they said, ‘Hindi,
samahan ka namin,’ Then I just told them, ‘Okay, can you be two restaurants
away?’”
3. On Cory as a lola:
“Super bait talaga, she never got mad at us.”
Jiggy: Every Christmastime, our lola would ask all the apos
for all the names of our teachers. She’d actually write them Christmas cards,
parang our lola’s way of helping us. “Be good to my apos. Wag mo bagsak apo
ko?” (Laughs)
Jonty: Her favorite story to tell was an incident that
transpired in a hotel room in Cebu. I was
playing with matches and medyo nasunog ko yung isang cushion. I turned it over
para hindi mahalata. My lola asked, “What’s that smell?” I would be coy and
say, “I don’t know, Lola. Baka it came from there.” She said, “Parang wala
naman.” I told her, “No, Lola. Turn it over I think may nangyari.” I ended up
explaining what I did without saying I did it. She didn’t get mad, naaliw lang
siya.
Jiggy: Every important thing in school, graduation, other
events, she was always there for me. She’d always bring me to different events
when she was president, kapag may mga visitors of all nationalities, she’d
always make me feel na, “Jiggy, dependable ka.” She can be really funny at
times. We were in a Walmart, just the two of us. Then there was this Asian
woman who told her, “You look like Cory Aquino.” “Oh, really?” she said. Lola
then turned to me, smiled and said: “Tumahimik ka, tumahimik ka.”
Jonty: Gusto ko yung humility niya, whoever she was, she
never made people feel it. She doesn’t go to churches with shades on, she
doesn’t stay in front, simple lang talaga.
Jiggy: When she was president, there was this button in her
car, it looked like that button in Voltes V. Eh pag bata ka, if you’re not
allowed to touch it, the more you want to touch it. She’d always tell me and my
cousin Miguel, “Don’t touch that.” It was a panic button. Pero nung last day
niya she told us, “Okay guys, knock yourselves out.” Buong Arlegui daw super
ingay, no one knew how to turn it off!”
4. They both never
got the chance to meet their lolo Ninoy because they were born years after he
had passed. Jiggy wishes he was there to witness the days in Boston, while Jonty wishes he could’ve seen
his lolo deliver his speeches live.
Jiggy and Jonty are columnists for the Philippine STAR’s
Lifestyle section every Friday. As a tribute on their lolo’s death anniversary
this year, they wrote a tear-jerking piece titled “To the Man We Never Met.”
Here is an excerpt:
There are so many things we wanted to ask you.
So many things we wish you could’ve taught us.
How did you make the greatest woman ever fall in love with
you?
What are the secrets to getting the woman of your dreams?
...
What was it like raising such wonderful children?
How did you manage to raise such an amazing daughter in
Ballsy? Seriously, she’s the best.
When asked which parts of Ninoy’s life they would have liked
to witness most, Jonty says: “I saw the footage, there was this political
debate and he was brought in. He just took control of it. He handled it so
well, nasagot niya lahat. Wow. Sana
I saw this live so I could actually cheer.” (You can actually search for it on
YouTube, “Ninoy Aquino’s Face The Nation”)
Jiggy chooses the Boston
days: “My dad said that in Boston,
he would be driving with the windows rolled down, and singing at the top of his
lungs to Imelda Papin’s Kung Liligaya Ka. Super ingay daw. Funny.
When asked what they think about the Marcoses, Jiggy says:
“We’re civil. It’s hard, the stories we grew up with. Nobody wanted to be
friends with my mom or her siblings kaya super close sila. Growing up in the
martial law years, everyone wanted to be away from them, even at Mass. There was one
particular wedding I can’t forget, my lola was saying she was in the corner
table with the yayas of the ringbearers. She was told, ‘O, Cory, bakit ka
nandyan, kawawa ka naman.’”
Jonty shares: “I think we got a normal childhood because my
mom kind of didn’t. I can’t really debate on martial law because I wasn’t
there, but yun nga, the difficulties they gave our parents. The things she
wasn’t able to do, that she gave us. That’s why we appreciate everything.
5. When asked to
describe how President Noynoy is as an uncle, Jiggy says “strict,” Jonty says
“relaxed.”
Growing up, para siyang fatherly figure, since wala siyang
kids. Pag may ginagawa kaming kalokohan, siya yung magdi-discipline sa amin. Or
like before, sa mall, gusto niya, we all stick together. Ayaw niya yung
maghihiwalay. “No one gets lost, everyone should be by my side,” Jiggy recalls.
“He’s relaxed naman. Funny din siya,” Jonty, who has P-Noy as a ninong,
reveals. “He loves telling jokes na alam mo yung mga matatagal nang joke? It’s
the joke na midway, mawawala ka na? Then when he gives the punchline, you don’t
know yun na pala yun,” he laughs.
When the President gets criticized, Jiggy admits it
irritates him but he does his best to ignore it. Jonty says, “I want to say
‘ignore,’ but I don’t. I try, but if ever, I just make witty comments. Like on
Twitter, I read ‘P-Noy urged to be more like Santa.’ I just posted, “Wow,
‘urged’?” If they comment, I can give my opinion, too.”
6. Sunday family day
with the Aquinos consists of a long lunch, TV, basketball and sometimes
political or showbiz chismis.
“When my lola was still alive, we’d go to Times St. at
around 12, lunch ‘til around 3, tapos kwentuhan, then the kids would go to the
rooms to play games. Kapag may PBA game we’d all go to her room and watch,”
Jiggy shares. “Alaska
kami nung ‘90s! Johnny A! When Tito James came on board, Purefoods na kami. At
that time, if there was a PBA game and The Buzz, she would switch back and
forth during commercials,” Jonty says. The conversations among the cousins
usually consist of jokes to each other, but now that they are older, the adults
and children are together at one table. What do they talk about? “Politics,
relatives, regular stuff, sometimes showbiz,” Jiggy says. “We get it from the
source talaga, eh. Tita Kris! Politics naman, Tito Noy,” Jonty says.
Who is the most ma-kwento? “If Tita Kris is there, she’s the
one.” Who gives the most punchlines? “Tita Pinky.” Who always makes kontra?
“It’s got to be our family doctor, Alex Ayco.”
7. Both Jiggy and
Jonty applied for a job right after college, both had to present résumés, both
started at a trainee/assistant position, both got promoted in a short span of
time.
Jonty started as an editorial assistant for Esquire Philippines,
where his workmates admitted to being uneasy ordering him to get them coffee or
photocopy papers. “I felt it, but I don’t think I ever gave them a reason to be
dyahe. Kahit ano I would get it, part of the job, eh,” Jonty says. He went from
that to web editor to managing editor in less than a year. “I always told
Erwin, my editor in chief, that I guess I got in because of the name. But he
told me, ‘You write well.’”
“I was a truck salesman,” Jiggy says of his first job with
Nestle Philippines.
“Caloocan,
Malabon, Navotas, Valenzuela area, during the rainy season, baha, I’d go to
sell my products. In the truck, nandun stocks mo, you sell to palengkes and
sari-sari stores.” From that, he became a key account salesman, trainee, then
assigned to field operations, and is now brand manager for Nescafe Dolce, in
the span of five and a half years.
“Our parents really taught us about humility. For my dad,
talagang hindi ka pwedeng mayabang,” Jiggy shares.
8. Jiggy versus
Jonty:
When they started courting girls:
Jiggy: College.
Jonty: High school.
They share they’ve both gotten basted.
Biggest freebie received:
Jiggy: “Bank near the office, mahaba yung pila. The bank
manager said siya na mag-aasikaso.”
Jonty: “Dad ko kilala yung pilot, next thing we know, we
were upgraded to business class.”
Times caught by the MMDA:
Jiggy: “Once. I read that e-mail of what they can and cannot
do, so when he knew I knew what I was talking about, he let me go.”
Jonty: “A lot, mga five times. Sometimes you really don’t
see the signs, like it’s behind a tree. I really didn’t know. Napakiusapan
naman.”
Things they usually fight about:
Jiggy: Little things, like clothes. Nauna ako, black na ako ha.
Jonty: We wrote an article today. In-edit ko. He said,
“Bakit mo binago?” Or when watching a movie. “Tara
na, aga aga pa?”
Jiggy: Tapos biglang traffic. “Sabi sayo alis tayo ng maaga,
eh.”
Spending habits:
Jiggy: I think about it first.
Jonty: I’m more “buy now, regret later.”
9. Jiggy and Jonty in
numbers:
2,000-plus: Total number of comic books they both own.
“We’ve been collecting since 1996.”
3: Number of hours it takes them to write and edit their
Philippine STAR column, “These Aren’t the Droids You’re Looking For” which
appears Fridays in Young Star.
7: Number of days of their longest fight, not speaking to
each other.
100 and 150: Grade of eyeglasses Jiggy wears, left and
right.
350 and 750: Grade of eyeglasses Jonty wears, left and
right.
10. They both love
politics but will never run for office. “Kuya, the moment tumakbo ka, ako mismo
magre-release ng smear campaign.”
“No,” Jiggy and Jonty say in unison when asked if they’ll
ever enter politics. “I’ll do everything to make him not run,” Jonty says.
“It’s worth it, I love it, but I’ll never join it.”
“The worst thing that could happen to us is probably if we
do something, then the next day on the front pages, ‘Pamangkin or apo or
Aquino, ganito or ganyan.’ Kung kami mismo nagbigay ng harm to the name, I
think that would be the worst,” Jonty says. “We grew up knowing to protect the
name. During the Ninoy and Cory book launch, a letter of my lolo to my Tito Noy
was read. “Wala akong maiiwan sa inyo na kayamanan, it’s my name I leave with
you, take care of it,” Jiggy shares.
* * *
http://www.philstar.com/sunday-life/2012-12-09/883331/jiggy-jonty-cruz-cory-noynoy-comics-getting-busted
