My idol, JPE

JPE was my idol. My security blanket. I would not be so bold as to call him my friend, though at one point I would have dared to think so, that day he came to our house, sat down in the living room and asked for a glass of water; that was all.

- JULLIE Y. DAZA

Five, six minutes later he was gone. The following day, our next-door neighbor wanted to know what that was all about. I didn't know what to tell him.

The first time I held a conversation with JPE, it was at the National Press Club, where he would be presiding over a press conference. I knew I had to be there, was in fact one of the first to raise my hand to ask a question, and JPE gave me the go signal. I was in my maternity dress (which makes it easy now to recall that this incident happened in late 1974).