FIRST lady Liza Araneta-Marcos' reputedly expensive public relations project — an hour-long interview with broadcaster Anthony Taberna — intended to portray her as a wife passionately protective of her husband's dignity and as a no-nonsense, down-to-earth, apolitical President's wife, has seriously backfired.

What emerged from her statements itself is an Imelda 2.0, the son's version of his father's globally famous wife who was the most powerful figure in Marcos Sr.'s 21-year rule. Perhaps the present first lady is even more powerful than her mother-in-law, as she herself disclosed in so many words — that she was responsible for surrounding her husband with his inner circle of "trusted, good men" and kicking out of Malacañang Victor Rodriguez, the most powerful official in the bureaucracy and her husband's most trusted confidante. Is it in the Marcos DNA?