On his trip to Great Britain, GMA had a meeting with Queen Elizabeth. Her smirk looked more like a grimace as he told her:
“How does one manage to run a country so smoothly?”
“That`s easy,” she replied, “You surround yourself with intelligent ministers and advisors.”
“But how can I tell whether they are intelligent or not?” GMA inquired.
“You ask them a riddle,” she replied, and with that she pressed a button and said, “Would you please send Tony Blair in.”
When Blair arrived, the Queen said, “I have a riddle for you to answer for me. Your parents had a child and it was not your sister and it was not your brother. Who was this child ?”
Blair replied, “That`s easy. The child was me.”
“Very good,” said the Queen, “You may go, now.”
So President GMA went back to Philippines and called in his chief of staff, Gen. Efren Abu. He said to him, “I have a riddle for you, and the answer is very important. Your parents had a child and it was not your sister and it was not your brother. Who was this child ?”
Abu replied, “Yes, it is clearly very important that we determine the answer, as no child must be left behind. Can I deliberate on this for a while?”
“Yes,” said GMA, “I’ll give you four hours to come up with the answer.”
So Abu went and called a meeting of the Malacanang Palace, and asked them the riddle. But after much discussion and many suggestions, none of them had a satisfactory answer. So he was quite upset, not knowing what he would tell the President.
As Abu was walking back to the Office, he saw Senate President Manny Villar Jr approaching him. So he said, “Mr. Senate President, can you answer this riddle for me. Your parents had a child and it was not your
sister and it was not your brother. Who was the child?”
“That’s easy,” said Villar, “The child was me.”
“Oh thank you,” said Abu, “You may just have saved me my job!”
So Abu went in to the Office and said to President GMA, “I think I know the answer to your riddle. The child was Manny Villar!”
“No, you idiot!” shouted GMA, “The child was Tony Blair!”
