Bien Unido mayor a trophy wife: best friend

"I want to die. My life is a lie. My life is wrecked," Gisela Bendong-Boniel once told her best friend Angela Leyson.

Leyson said Gisela often ran to her for solace whenever the latter was having marital trouble.

Leyson said that the once happy-go-lucky and fierce airline captain changed when she married Niño Rey Boniel, a threeterm mayor of Bien Unido, Bohol and now an incumbent Provincial Board member.

"He clipped her wings. She was in love with flying, but she was convinced to give it up to run for mayor of Bien Unido," Leyson said.

Gisela and Niño separated last February. They were not on good terms.

Leyson said Gisela often told her about the latter's frustrations about her marriage being a “joke.”

"She felt like she was a trophy wife, an instrument. She felt she was being used to hide the defi- cits of her husband, the ex-mayor," Leyson said.

They only got married when Gisela found out that she was two months pregnant, Leyson said. Their relatives even attend.

Leyson denied reports that Gisela eloped with another man.

"She has a foreigner as an acquaintance and they would go out on dinners, but speculations that they were living under the same roof are not true," Leyson said.

Gisela planned to resign as mayor of Bien Unido and return to flying, Leyson said.

She also filed for annulment last June 6, Leyson said.

"I hope... Niño will pay for what he did," she said.