'THERE IS SO MUCH NOISE GOING AROUND - I'D RATHER NOT ADD TO THE CACOPHONY!'

After 21 years, we finally have a First Lady. And she is one whom the public doesn't really know that well. She is a very cerebral lady who describes herself as shy. "I really don't want to be talking about myself.

- MILLET M. MANANQUIL

Perhaps self-effacing is a better word to describe her. "I am just a backup dancer," she said when she helped her husband campaign for Congressman and Senator after their return from the US. Through it all, she preferred to stay out of the spotlight.

But make no mistake: she is no pushover. Faced with attacks and fake news about her, she quipped: "I may be a lot of things, but being a coward is not one of them."

So people ask: what is First Lady Louise "Liza" Araneta-Marcos really like?

I asked some friends who have seen her up-close. "She is down-to-earth and charismatic," Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng states, after spending a whole day with the First Lady's Lab for All project.

"Our First Lady is a very hardworking, organized, intelligent and efficient person. She always feels what you feel. She finds a way to connect with people's emotions with grace and compassion," says work-oriented businesswoman Alice Eduardo.

"She was siga," Bongbong said of Liza.

"Basta, I'm iyakin at heart," said Liza.

"Liza is very grounded and sincere. No airs. What you see is what you get," observes Iloilo family friend Atty. Joe Mari Treñas.

But perhaps the most intimate observation about LAM (as she is fondly called) comes from people who see her closely at work.

Atty. Franco Lacandalo, who oversees the Lab for All health caravan project in the urban as well as rural areas, says we might see the First Lady as a cold woman of steel, but the truth is, "She is iyakin... LAM gets teary-eyed when she is touched as she sees people in the rural areas happy while receiving medical treatment, health packs and relief goods."

And what makes the First Lady upset? "When she sees people, especially old folks, lining up under the sun," narrates Atty. Lacandalo. "She would tell me and my team: 'Bakit natin sila pinahihirapan?'"