Imelda Marcos : The Muse of Manila, the Iron Butterfly, the Imeldific and the Proverbial Phoenix
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| Imelda @ 83 yrs old, circa 2012 |
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| Imelda as Queen of the Philippines circa late 1970s |
It was in 1965 when Imelda Romualdez Marcos, a beautiful relative from the well known Romualdez clan became the First Lady of the Philippines. Little did she know when she became the Muse of Manila that in a few years time she would be standing radiantly in an Philippine gown with butterfly sleeves called the Terno (which she would wear and be famous for during their reign) side by side with Ferdinand Edralin Marcos her husband, the President and Strongman of the Philippines who would rule the country for 20 years. In that time the world had known Imelda Marcos, not only as a first lady but as a woman of captivating beauty, style, power, wealth and unbelievable charm. She was one of the most beautiful Fist Ladies of her time. She was also called the Iron Butterfly, for her inner strength, stamina and courage behind her ethereal face and femininity.
During her husband's rule, she also obtained great power as well as extreme wealth. She was appointed Governor of Manila, Minister of Human Settlements, and Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraodinary. She built edifices like the Cultural Center, Film Center, Heart center,Kidney center, Lung center, Coconut Palace among others. She became the President's emissary and toured the globe to meet with the Pope, Presidents, Kings and Queens as well as charming feared leaders/dictators like Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Fidel Castro of Cuba, Khadaffi of Libya, and Mao Zedong of China. She also hobnobbed with the international High Society like Tobacco heiress Doris Duke, Christina Ford, Dame Margot Fonteyn, Billionaires Adnan Kashoggi, Donald Trump, Rick Hilton and Leona Helmsley among others. In the Philippines, she had her own gang or sort of ladies in waiting called the " Blue Ladies", who are wives of the super rich and powerful businessmen and politicians. She would also have Hollywood celebrities like George Hamilton, Brooke Shields and other showbiz personalities grace her private parties
During her trips abroad she would wear beautifully embroidered and beaded " Ternos" made by famous Filipino designers, with matching bags and of course shoes ( which she was also famous for) from well known international brands. She would take her friends from one country to another during these trips where they would also tour and shop lavishly. There were news that they would have a whole store closed for them to get what they wanted, and they were tagged as the "Mine" girls, after stories of sales personnel hearing them exclaiming "mine!" and pointing to things they want to buy. There were stories about renting a whole floor of 5 star hotels for her entourage, holding private fashion shows in an airplane during their travels, and even turning a cave into a discotheque for a private party.
Her extravagant lifestyle also reportedly included five-million-dollar shopping tours in New York, Rome and Copenhagen in 1983, and sending a plane to pick up Australian white sand for a new beach resort. She purchased a number of properties in Manhattan in the 1980s, including the $51-million Crown Building, the Woolworth Building (40 Wall Street) and the $60-million Herald Centre; she declined to purchase the Empire State Building for $750m as she considered it "too ostentatious." Her New York real estate was later seized and sold, along with much of her jewels and most of her 175 piece art collection, which included works by Michelangelo, Botticelli, and Canaletto. She responded to criticisms of her extravagance by claiming that it was her "duty" to be "some kind of light, a star to give [the poor] guidelines."
She also orchestrated lavish public events using hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds to extol her husband's regime and bolster her public image. Imelda secured the Miss Universe 1974 pageant for Manila, which necessitated the construction and completion of the 10,000-seat Folk Arts Theater in less than three months. Marcos organized the Kasaysayan ng Lahi, an extravagant festival parade showcasing the history of the Philippines. She initiated social programs such as the Green Revolution, a program that, although it did not address hunger and the core problem of agricultural land reform (most Filipino farmers were tenant farmers and did not own their land), encouraged Filipinos to plant vegetables and fruits in their gardens. Other short-lived social programs included a national family-planning program to reduce the country's population growth.
.The Marcoses had also built several Mansions and rest houses both in the Philippines and abroad,some of the most notable among these are the Sto.Nino Shrine: a mansion with a chapel for the ivory image of the Sto. Nino, or Infant Jesus, this house boasts several rooms that depicts Philippine provinces, as well as dioramas of Imelda's story. There are also rooms lavishly decorated and inspired by Marie Antoinette's chambers, and a ballroom/ throne room with a large painting of Imelda emerging from the sea. The Palace in the Sky in Tagaytay is another mansion on top of a hill which is the highest point in the scenic Tagaytay. The Marcos Ancestral Mansion in Batac Ilocos Norte: this is where the Mausoleum of Ferdinand Marcos is located where his body lays in state covered in wax and dressed in a Filipino National costume called the " Barong" and decorated with a sash and medals within a refrigerated glass coffin for visitors to see. This mansion also houses a 2 story Museum. The Malacanang of the North: a mansion that also served as a Marcos' personal presidential palace in the Nothern Philippines that is situated beside a lake. Fort Ilocandia: A 5 star hotel in the Ilocos Province which also serves as a Marcos residence that was inspired after a Moroccan Villa after Imelda visited King Hassan of Morocco. Other mansions include large vacation houses in Ilocos, Leyte, Cavite, Laguna, Baguio and some more in different provinces.
Aside from these they also purchased several properties in the United States and Europe, including the Marcoses' New York townhouse where a private disco is situated in the topmost floor. She also renovated and enlarged Malacanang, the old Presidential Palace in Manila and had it bomb proof.
At the height of their power, Imelda also became one of the Richest women in the world in the 1970s, she also became one of the world's largest jewelry and art collectors. It was told that she once also bought three important diamonds in a single transaction from a famous jeweller.
All these extravagance were temporarily put to an end in 1986 when they were toppled by the People Power Revolution in EDSA after being accused of ordering the Assassination of opposition leader Benigno Aquino at the tarmac of the Manila International Airport. They fled in Exile to Hawaii leaving 508 gowns, 15 mink coats( which she uses during her trips abroad), 1,000 handbags, and around 3,000 pairs of shoes within the Malacanang Presidential Palace. The Government also seized a large jewelry collection amounting to Billions of pesos, a large number of paintings by great Masters, and 24 suitcases of gold bars.
During this time the word "Imeldific" was coined by Webster meaning ostentatious and extravagant.
After Ferdinand Marcos died in exile in Hawaii, Imelda still elegantly dressed herself in black and pearls for mourning faced the charges alone but unrepentant. She was the first wife of a foreign head of state to stand trial in an American court. In 1990, she was acquitted of racketeering and fraud charges, alongside co-defendant Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian former billionaire and arms dealer. The "theatrical" trial involved many celebrities.
Despite their downfall, much of the Multi-Billion Marcos wealth remains hidden. It is also speculated that Imelda still has some of the world's biggest and famous diamonds.One of which was worn during one of her daughters' grand wedding to a scion of a rich and aristocratic clan.
A billionaire businessman named Enrique Zobel testified that Ferdinand Marcos in his dying days, had wanted to settle the problem concerning his controversial wealth and sought Zobel’s help. With Zobel, a foundation to be chaired by a Vatican representative was worked out posthaste to facilitate the process of disposition. Marcos had demanded only two conditions: his burial in the Philippines and the immunity of his family. The term of sharing: 10% for the Marcos family, 10% for the Vatican, 1% for the Marcos loyalists in Hawaii, for others, Zobel could not recall, the bigger remainder, for “schools, hospitals, infrastructure, and agriculture”. Unfortunately, the foundation never got off because of his illness— his doctors would not certify to his lucidity as a signatory to a legally-binding agreement.
Zobel estimated the Marcos wealth at a staggering $100 billion spread out in different countries. Marcos, he testified, had claimed his riches came partly from the Yamashita treasure which he had accumulated during the war.
He also revealed about an Irene Araneta account(named afte Marcs' daughter) amounting to $13 billion dollars.
Zobel told the senators that he expected his revelations to open him to ridicule.
"But all I have tried (to do) is recount as faithfully as I can... talks I had with Marcos 10 years ago, based on notes, videotapes and other aids for recollection," Zobel said. "In the end, I believe we must stick to the main issue: Is there Marcos wealth outside the Philippines? Where is it? Is it ill-gotten? Can we recover it?
He added that while he could not prove that Marcos really gave gold to the four, he swore to the veracity of his claim that Marcos had told him about this act.
In Manila, Senator Enrile had said that the 72-year-old businessman is suffering from mental illness, while several congressmen found Zobel's tale "incredible."
During their exile Imelda's flamboyance and theatrics continued to draw media attention. Despite her talks of deprivation, she still managed to reside in an elegant and sprawling villa in Hawaii with attendants, bodyguards, and entertained visiting loyalists. She had built a white mausoleum for her husband's refrigerated remains on top of a hill, complete with a carpet, a garden,a grotto, and altar for prayer. And she even went to one of her trials in New York dressed in an elegant Philippine gown.
After being acquitted, she celebrated her victory by throwing a party dressed in a black fur and beaded gown. This was attended by some of New York's elite crowd captured in photos by Life magazine
in 1991 after 5 years in exile, she was allowed to go back home to the Philippines seeking vindication. She started to build and establish the new Marcos Political Empire. She was elected congresswoman of Leyte in 1995, and became a congresswoman of the 2nd district of Ilocos Norte in 2010 to the present. Currently her daughter Imee( Imelda Jr.) also became a Congresswoman in 1998 and was elected in 2010 as the Governor of Ilocos Norte . Imelda's son Ferdinand Jr. or fondly called Bongbong was elected Governor of Ilocos Norte in 1998 and elected in 2010 as a Senator.
Imelda Marcos' clout also extended through her late brother and nephews who have also gained political control of their province in Leyte. Their Polticial dynasty continues to grow, after all it was speculated that many powerful Political Dynasties and rich and influential families who controls several of the Philippines largest corporations continued to support the Marcoses. Imelda and Ferdinand during their rule have supported and invested on many politicians as well as businessmen and made them flourish and build political and business empires for generations. The Marcos children have also successfully married into high society who have broad influence in both business and politics.
Imelda's family are once again in the Philippines' top 400 High Society list. And had been listed once again as one of the World's most powerful women.
After Imelda's comeback to power she was called as a "Proverbial Phoenix " by a society magazine.
In 2009 Imelda Marcos was included in Newsweek magazine's 11 Greediest People of All Time including China's Empress Cixi, William Vanderbilt, and Genghis Khan.
Every 2nd of July Imelda celebates her birthday in pomp and splendor which still attracts international media attention, it would last for days attended by more than 1,000 thousand VIP guests from the Philippines and abroad.
She had graced the opening of a shoe museum where some of her shoes were displayed. She also opened a new Marcos museum in 2011 in her late husband's hometown, where they celebrate a week long Marcos Festival every September in honor of the late President's Birthday.
Imelda would however still appear in the media to be helpless, poor and teary eyed when asked about the Marcos' ill-gotten wealth, but would appear otherwise during private events where she can be seen partying decked in glittering diamonds. Unpublicized photographs of her in some private photo sharing networks would show her wearing a golf ball sized emerald brooch, a large 25 carat single diamond ring, or a burmese ruby bib necklace.
She currently resides in a posh penthouse of a high rise building within Metro Manila's exclusive Super Rich community. The large apartment is complete with a helipad and a garden with jade and marble statuaries. And the interiors are luxuriously decorated in gilded european furnitures, gold figurines, antiques, prized paintings of old masters as well as hundreds of framed photographs during their rule, and surprisingly one room is dedicated to thousands of documents of court cases neatly labeled and displayed in shelves and rows of tables.
More than 900 cases were filed against the Marcoses but they said they are now down to only a few.For Imelda this is vindication and she is proud to say that she is never guilty of stealing. She claimed that her fortune came from Yamashita's Gold. In February 2006, Marcos insisted that her husband had acquired his wealth legitimately as a gold trader. By the late 1950s, she claimed, he had amassed a personal fortune 7,500 tons of gold, and after gold prices climbed in the 1970s, the Marcos family was worth about $35 billion.
In one interview with a British reporter it seemed like she has unintentionally showed a bank certificate which she immediately handled to her assistant to keep. The reporter later mentioned that it was a certificate of more than $900 billion!
However, the Bureau of Internal Revenue has no record of the Marcos family declaring or paying taxes on these assets, and the source of their wealth remains open to investigation. Whether this is true or not , the Marcos wealth still remains a mystery.
At 83 Imelda shows no sign of slowing down from politics and society, she is still hoping to have her husband get the state burial that she said he deserves as a former president. Though despite the issues about the former president, many politicians would still agree that Ferdinand Marcos could be the greatest president the Philippines ever had minus the corruption. He was a decorated soldier, a prolific orator, and has one of the highest scores in the bar exam.
To this day Imelda Marcos' new shoe collection is said to have doubled in number. When she left the Palace there were around 3,000 pairs left and confiscated. While her new collection to this day could have reached to 4,000-5,000 pairs already. W magazine have featured her opulent Old Villa in San Juan City in Metro Manila back in 2009 where some of her new shoe collections were displayed in racks in a long hallway. Her grandson claimed that " There were more where those came from".
Being famous for her shoe collection, the term Imeldific have been widely used internationally for shoe fanatics, posters and ads have used her name as well. One store in New York posted " There is a little Imelda in all of us". Stage plays and musicals have been written about her. In 2010 an album by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim entitled " Here lies Love" was released, which was about Imelda's story from her childhood to exile. Among the performers include Cyndi Lauper. In 2013 it was headlined that there will also be a new musical about Imelda to open in New York.
Imelda does plead guilty though to one thing, her mantra which became a famous quote: " I plead guilty, I am geediest only to the True the Good and the Beautiful."
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