Having served as presidential press secretary, spokesman, and information minister from 1969 to 1980 (during the Marcos years), I have been asked by friends, who seem to believe that I keep some of the nation’s unspeakable secrets, what value I give to the latest published speculations that Sen. Grace Poe Natividad Sonora Poe Llamanzares is--or at least could be--the illegitimate daughter of the late President Ferdinand Marcos by the former actress Rosemarie Sonora, sister of the more famous actress Jesusa Sonora Poe (aka Susan Roces), adoptive mother of the celebrated foundling.

As if that were not enough, I have also been asked to respond directly to fellow Times columnist Rigoberto Tiglao’s question on this page on Monday: “Why does Poe refuse to take a DNA test with Marcos Jr.?”