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<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-9/sandro-lisa-and-bbm-sm.webp" alt="Bongbong Lisa and Sandro Marcos" />
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(Bongbong, Lisa and,  Sandro Marcos)
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Sandro, who recently guested on Spotlight, the online lifestyle show of Daily Tribune webcast on Facebook and YouTube, says:
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"Whenever I visit, you will always catch me eating empanada. I have to say that my favorite thing to do there is to eat Ilocano food." 
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With an Ilocano for a father, who happens to be the only son of President Ferdinand E. Marcos, there is no escaping the question of how so much of an Ilocano Sandro is. To which he replies:
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 "People would call me kuripot (frugal) which Ilocanos are known for. So maybe that's the Ilocano part that I got."
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But like every Ilocano, Sandro could survive anywhere and would always find a way to earn more money. In London, while in college at the City University of London and in graduate school at the London School of Economics and Politics, he augmented <i>"the tiny allowance that my father, being so thrifty, gave me by working as a DJ during parties."</i>
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He points out, though, that <i>"while Ilocanos are considered very serious people and very reserved, I am, on the contrary, talkative and makulit, which, he surmises, "I have taken from (the) Araneta (side of my) family."</i>
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Although busy now ("This being budget time in Congress") in his work as a staff assistant in the office of his father's cousin, Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, Sandro is taking a short break this weekend to join his parents and brother Simon in Ilocos Norte to celebrate his father Bongbong's birthday. <i>"It will just be us"</i>, he says.
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<i>"Thankfully, my father is healthy na,"</i> he says of Bongbong, who caught COVID-19 in a foreign trip, but has since fully recovered. <i>"I have missed my parents who have been staying in our home province for a long while because it's much safer there."</i>
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Best father
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While Sandro claims closeness to both his parents, he approaches either depending on his immediate purpose, he says:
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 "When it comes to the most serious life decisions and I need an advice, it's my dad I go to."
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For lambing (or when he is feeling affectionate), he turns to his mother.
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"But I shouldn't be taking favorites because my mom always tells me that she is my best mother and my dad is the best father. I appreciate everything that they have done for me. I still have plenty to learn from them so I'm looking forward to that."
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As to his life direction:
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 "My parents have always been steadfast. They will support whatever you do as long as you excel in whatever you choose. So, there's no pressure from my parents. They always say that ‘whatever you do, do it well.'"
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Carve up your own life
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Sandro identifies with Bongbong <i>"in the sense that he takes to life in a more logical way," an attitude that he attributes to "both of us growing up in UK. Boarding school teaches you certain things that only going to boarding school could teach you. I think in that sense, I would say I'm like my father."</i>
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He found his stay in England <i>"refreshing because I did not have to be a part of a certain family. I could just be Sandro. Studying abroad allowed me to take a step back and allowed me to be my own person."</i>
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Both father and son love music. Sandro relates:
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"I grew up listening to Eric Clapton and Elton John because that was what he played to me, but I went on to widen my choices to the eclectic, from rock to disco to pot. When I go home and I need to destress, I put on a record and just play music to wind down."
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As to whether being a Marcos (or an Araneta, for that matter), could be intimidating, Sandro thinks it's all about perception.
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"It's just the way you see it. I don't consider it intimidating to have the luck that I have, whether it's because of my parents or their parents before them. It's an opportunity that one needs to grab. There are certain benefits you get in life because of where you are from. And I think that should be capitalized upon.
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"I think it's more appropriate that, because of where I am from or because of who my parents are, one should grab by the horns whatever opportunities there are.
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"What is even more important is the need to carve up your own life and make it your own way, or make your own name in whatever passion or profession you might be."
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For sure, Sandro takes to heart his father's counsel. It is obvious in the way Sandro has so far lived his life — making his choices and doing well in them while making the most of the opportunities that come with his forebears' legacy.
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Sandro's birthday wish for his father? 
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Bongbong and Sandro, in many ways similar and different