ORMOC CITY, Oct. 29 (PNA) — A Filipino based in California, USA, who worked for the Marcoses for nearly three decades, returned home to distribute early Christmas gifts.
Clotilde Pepito de Guzman, 76, recently came back to Leyte and gathered about 300 relatives and neighbors in Albuera town in a lunch and handed them packs of clothings, goods and cash.
She used to work for the Marcoses for 27 years and in fact, was with the former first couple when exiled to Hawaii on 1986.
De Guzman said her family in the United States bought basic necessities that were filled in a container van for her relatives and friends in Tacloban in the aftermath of super typhoon Yolanda on November 8, 2013.
These goods were directly sent to the Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez for distribution.
And in time of her vacation this October, she then gathered her relatives from various towns in Leyte together with neighbors in Albuera town for a lunch that started with a thanksgiving mass.
De Guzman, whose father is a native of Albuera town, used to organize a simple get together to convene her relatives in past years.
She recalled that it was ex-president Ferdinand E. Marcos who named her “Reddy,” which means “ready” for when he instructed her certain task, she was all the time geared up.
She and former first lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos were neighbors in Tacloban. She was also her past piano student.
She married to retired Col. Romulo de Guzman, a closed-in security of then Pres. Marcos wherein they were gifted with four children that are now successful professionals in USA.
De Guzman graduated Bachelor of Science in Nursing but decided not to take the board exam when offered by Mrs. Marcos to work for them in Malacañang.
De Guzman is a distant relative of the Codillas of Ormoc City where she stays during her visit in Leyte. (PNA)