APPOINTED JUSTICE Secretary on January 22, 2001, Perez's confirmation was not acted upon until the new Congress opened in July 2001. He was bypassed once in December 2001, when Senator Sergio Osmeña III questioned his being seemingly too quick to the draw with the IMPSA opinion.

But Perez's confirmation was assured this January after Senator Panfilo 'Ping' Lacson, who had earlier boasted that he had documents that would help convict the justice secretary of plunder, suddenly lost his tongue and spunk. The supposed reason why the ex-police chief suddenly shut up was to come weeks later, when 130 of the 220 members of the House of Representatives and 19 of the 24 senators filed separate resolutions supporting Estrada's request to be allowed to go to the United States for knee surgery.

Insiders in the administration and opposition parties say the resolutions were the product of a deal struck between the Estrada camp and the Arroyo government, and brokered by the Iglesia ni Kristo, a voting bloc that is about two-million strong. They say that Estrada himself spoke with Iglesia leaders and Lacson to let Perez's Commission on Appointments (CA) confirmation pass, in exchange for government's assurance that the former president would be allowed to go abroad for treatment.

The message was communicated to Malacañang, and after a few days, Perez's appointment was endorsed by both administration and opposition lawmakers in the CA, say the insiders. Throughout his confirmation hearings, senior deputies of Iglesia ni Kristo leader Eraño Manalo monitored the CA hearings in the Senate. Weeks later, the resolutions were circulated in the House by Estrada ally Maguindanao Rep. Didagen Dilangalen and Estrada's wife, Senator Luisa Pimentel Ejercito.

The insiders even go on to argue that since seven administration senators signed the Estrada resolution, the President Arroyo herself must have been in on the deal.

The President probably has little choice but to stand by her man at the justice department, who has been christened in jest by Palace reporters as the "First Boyfriend," but who in reality is probably more like her "First Mentor" in realpolitik, now that her father, former President Diosdado Macapagal, is gone.

Because Arroyo came to power with a huge cloud of doubt hanging over her administration's legal basis for existence, it was Perez as justice secretary who worked to settle the issue before the Supreme Court. When the government was threatened by the mutinous forces of EDSA Tres in May 2001, Perez raised the legal arguments, no matter infirm, to justify the detention of the pro-Estrada rallyists. It was Perez as well who had to strike deals with Estrada cronies, decide on who to prosecute and who to let go—with carte-blanche authority from Mrs. Arroyo - in the interest of keeping the political peace as her government wobbled and wandered in search of stability.

The Arroyo-Perez political liaison goes back to 1987. Over the years, they've joined and jumped from one political party to another, like political butterflies in parallel flight.

In 1988, they ran—he for congressman and she for senator—under the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino party organized by Corazon Aquino's younger brother Jose 'Peping' Cojuangco and the late Ramon Mitra Jr. They were reelected, he in 1992 and 1995 and she in 1995, also as Laban candidates. They bolted Laban in 1997 and signed up with Fidel Ramos's Lakas-NUCD party so she could run as vice president of Speaker Jose de Venecia, and he as senatorial candidate, in the 1998 elections.

Arroyo won, got a Cabinet post, and struck a modus vivendi with new President Joseph Estrada, while Perez receded briefly into political oblivion. But they kept in touch, on occasion partying with common friends in Batangas. Like him, she carries a drink very well and could shame other men less inclined.

Like her, Perez had a politician for a father, although his never went beyond local politics. Lawyer Francisco G. Perez was one of the longest serving members of the Batangas provincial board. His son aimed higher, even though he began his political career as Batangas City board member in 1979. Batangas City Prosecutor Mario Atienza recalls that Perez first animated audiences in 1983 when he resisted an order from the Marcos-controlled Commission on Elections for ballot boxes in his district to be brought to a military camp for counting. Perez was then running for a seat in the Marcos-era Batasang Pambansa.

"He vehemently refused and he said that the ballot boxes can be only brought to the camp over his dead body,'' recounts Atienza. "And the news spread around that here is a man who can stand against a provincial commander during the martial-law regime."

Votes and fans soon swamped him. "From that time on his political stock began to rise," Atienza says. "Imagine, ha, I heard news, I heard stories about women swooning over him, ano ha, when he begins to speak and he is a good speaker."

Perez was one of the noisier opposition members of the Batasan when the first "people power" revolt was staged. He was appointed secretary of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications during the Aquino administration, but quit early on to run for Congress. Perez secured three three-year terms in the House of Representatives, and by 1998, he had served as minority floorleader and deputy speaker—while changing parties three times.