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Imelda Marcos

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The Honourable
Imelda Romualdez-Marcos
File:Irm.jpg
10th First Lady of the Philippines
In office
December 30, 1966 – February 25, 1986
Preceded byEva Macapagal
Succeeded byBenigno Aquino, Jr.
Regional Assemblymen, National Capital Region
In office
1978–1986
Minister of Human Settlements
In office
1978–1986
Representative, 1st District of Leyte
In office
1995–1998
Personal details
Born (1929-07-02) July 2, 1929 (age 95)
Philippines Manila, Philippines
Political partyBagong Lipunan
SpouseFerdinand Marcos

Imelda Trinidad Romualdez-Marcos (born July 2, 1929 in Manila) was the wife of Ferdinand Marcos, former First Lady, and an influential political figure in the Philippines. She is known as the "Steel Butterfly" and remains a controversial figure not only in her home country, but around the world. Her extensive shoe collection is world-renowned.[1]

Early life

Imelda Remedios Visitacion Trinidad Romualdez Marcos was born on July 2, 1929 in San Juan de Dios Hospital in Manila. Her parents were Vicente Orestes Romualdez (of Spanish blood) and Remedios Trinidad, the second wife of the widowed-Vicente. Her paternal ancestors founded the town of Tolosa, Leyte [2].[citation needed]Her own branch of the family was not political. Her father was a scholarly man more interested in music and culture than in public life. Her mother, a dressmaker who grew up in an orphanage in Manila,[3] is a Trinidad from the town of Baliuag, Bulacan, famed for the charm of its women.

File:Irm-Fm.jpg
Wedding photo of Mr. and Mrs. Ferdinand Marcos.

Imelda spent her childhood in the shadow of the Malacañang Palace in San Miguel District in Manila, since her family then lived near San Miguel Church. After his second wife Remedios died, and their home foreclosed, Vicente moved his family back to Leyte to live with relatives,[3] where Imelda earned a bachelor's degree in education at St. Paul's College."[4]

She also became a beauty queen. At the age of 18, she was crowned the "Rose of Tacloban," became "Miss Leyte", went to Manila in 1953, and was named the "Muse of Manila" by then Manila Mayor, Arsenio Lacson, after she protested her loss in the Miss Manila pageant.

In 1954, Imelda met then-Ilocos Norte Congressman Ferdinand E. Marcos. After a whirlwind courtship in Baguio during Holy Week, they were married in May of that year at the Manila Pro-Cathedral Church with President Ramon Magsaysay as principal sponsor.[4] They have three children, Maria Imelda "Imee" Marcos, Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr., and Irene Marcos; and one adopted daughter, Aimee.

In 1966, Ferdinand Marcos became the 10th President of the Philippines. Together with Imelda, he would rule the Philippines as a Dictator from September 21, 1972 up to until he was ousted on February 1986 in the famous People Power Revolution when he fled the Philippines.

Imelda: The First Lady

File:Imelda-khadaffi.jpg
First Lady Imelda Marcos with Libyan leader Col. Muammar al-Gaddafi.

In 1966, Ferdinand Edralin Marcos became President of the Philippines.

In July 1966, Imelda Marcos was "snubbed" by The Beatles, who were in the country on tour, when they did not accept an invitation to join the First Lady for breakfast. The famous no-show was televised nationally.

In 1969, Ferdinand became the first President of the Philippine Republic to be re-elected a second and last 4-year term. In September 23, 1972, President Marcos declared martial law. It was during the martial-law period that Imelda Marcos assumed a public role in the government. She was appointed to various positions in the government, to name a few: Governor of Metropolitan Manila; Minister of Human Settlement;and Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary. On December 7, 1972, an assailant tried to stab her to death with a knife during an award ceremony broadcast live on television. The assailant was shot to death by security police; the wounds on Imelda Marcos' hands and arms required 75 stitches.[5] In 1978, she was elected as member of the 165-member Interim Batasang Pambansa (National Assembly) representing the National Capital Region.

As a Special Envoy, Mrs. Imelda Marcos was instrumental in the opening of Philippine diplomatic relations with China, the Soviet Union, and the Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe (Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, etc.), Middle East, Libya, and Cuba, in the securing of a cheap supply of oil from China and Libya; and in the signing of the Tripoli Agreement.

Imelda Marcos' extravagant lifestyle 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 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."[6]

She was instrumental in securing the 1974 Miss Universe Pageant for Manila, and organized the Kasaysayan ng Lahi, a festival showcasing the history of the Philippines. [7] [8] She also claimed to have launched a massive family-planning program to reduce population growth, despite opposition from the country's powerful Catholic Church[9]

Her other projects include: the Cultural Center of the Philippines; Philippine Heart Center; Lung Center of the Philippines; Kidney Institute of the Philippines, Nayong Pilipino; Philippine International Convention Center; Folk Arts Theater; Coconut Palace; and the infamous Manila Film Center.

Imelda after EDSA

File:Jiang Qing with Imelda Marcos.JPG
China's Jiang Qing with Imelda Marcos (center at the top).

On February 25, 1986, Ferdinand Marcos and his family fled to Hawaii (via Guam) after his regime was toppled by a four-day People Power Revolution in EDSA. Marcos was succeeded by Corazon Aquino, widow of the slain former Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr. Upon assuming office, President Aquino issued Executive Order No. 1, creating the Presidential Commission on Good Government to investigate and sequester the alleged unexplained wealth of the Marcoses. President Aquino abolished the Batasang Pambansa (Philippine Parliament) and the Ministry of Human Settlements, Imelda's former ministry.

After the Marcos family fled Malacañang Palace, Imelda was found to own 15 mink coats, 508 gowns, 888 handbags[10] and 1060 pairs of shoes.[11] In February 2006, Imelda insisted that Ferdinand Marcos acquired his wealth legitimately as a gold trader. By the late 1950s, she claimed, he had amassed a personal fortune of 7,500 tons of gold, and after gold prices climbed in the 1970s, the Marcos family was worth 35 billion dollars. However, the Bureau of Internal Revenue has no record of the Marcos family declaring or paying taxes on these assets, and the origins of their wealth remains open to investigation.[6]

Ousted President Marcos died in exile on September 29, 1989. President Aquino refused to permit the repatriation of his remains for national security reasons.[12] The Supreme Court upheld the decision of the government in Marcos vs. Manglapus [13]. However, in 1991, Imelda Marcos was finally allowed to return home.

Marcos 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 billionare and arms dealer. The "theatrical" trial involved many celebrities: Marcos and Khashoggi were represented by infamous trial lawyer Gerry Spence; Marcos' $5 million dollar bail was posted by tobacco heiress Doris Duke; and actor George Hamilton was a star witness for the defense.[14]

File:Irm jiangqing.jpg
Mrs. Imelda Marcos with Jiang Qing, popularly known as Madame Mao Zedong.

In 1992, Mrs. Marcos ran and finished fifth in the seven-way presidential race. Her votes were split between her, with 2,338,294 votes, and Ambassador Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., a Marcos crony, with 4,116,376 votes. Fidel Ramos, Aquino’s anointed candidate, received 5.3 million and won the election.[15]In 1995, she was elected Congresswoman of Leyte, representing the first district of her home province.

In 1998, she made another bid for the presidency but later backed out of the race to support the candidacy of then Vice President Joseph Ejercito Estrada. Imelda Marcos finished 9th among 11 candidates vying for the Philippine government's top post. During the administration of her friend and ally, President Joseph Estrada, many of the cases filed by the Aquino government were dismissed by Ombudsman Aniano Desierto, owing to technicalities (lapse of the prescriptive period for filing cases). On June 29, 1998, the Sandiganbayan (Philippine anti-corruption court) convicted the Former First Lady of the charge that she had entered into an agreement disadvantageous to the government. On appeal, the Supreme Court reversed the decision and cited Sandiganbayan Justice Francis Gatchitorena for his alleged bias against Mrs. Marcos.[16]

Presently, Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and Imee R. Marcos are in their last terms as Governor and Congresswoman, respectively, of Ilocos Norte. Recently, Imee Marcos announced that her mother Imelda might run for mayor of Manila in the 2007 elections. On the other hand, numerous civil and criminal cases filed against her are still pending in the Sandiganbayan.

Marathon trials of 10 graft cases

On September 21, 2007, the Sandiganbayan's 5th Division chair Associate Justice Ma. Cristina Cortez-Estrada granted Marcos' motion for daily trial on her 10 pending graft cases (beginning January 21, 2008, as requested by defense lawyers on September 17 alleging the illnesses, inter alia).[17]

See also

Further reading

  • Imelda, steel butterfly of the Philippines. Katherine Ellison, author. McGrawHill, New York, 1988. ISBN 0-07-019335-5
  • Imelda Romualdez Marcos. Kerima Polotan.
  • Cronies and Enemies: the Current Philippine Scene. Belinda Aquino, editor. University of Hawaii. 1982.
  • Waltzing with a Dictator: the Marcoses and the Making of American Policy. Raymond Bonner, author. Times Books, New York,1987. ISBN 0-8129-1326-4
  • Imelda: a Story of the Philippines. Beatriz Romualdez Francia, author.
  • Presidential Plunder: the Quest for Marcos Ill-Gotten Wealth. Jovito Salonga, author. Regina Pub. Co.,Manila, 2001.
  • Inside the Palace: The Rise and Fall of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. Beth Day Romulo, author. Putnam Pub. Group,New York, 1987. ISBN 0-399-13253-8
  • The Marcos Dynasty. Sterling Seagrave, author. Harper & Row, New York, 1988. ISBN 0-06-015815-8
  • The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos and Imelda Marcos. Primitivo Mijares, author. Union Square Publishing. ISBN 1-141-12147-6

Notes

  1. ^ "Homage to Imelda's shoes". BBC News. 16 February, 2001. Retrieved 2006-12-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Kerima Polotan, "Imelda Romualdez Marcos, A Biography of the First Lady of the Philipines", The World Publishing Company, Ohio
  3. ^ a b Katherine Ellison, Imelda, Steel Butterfly of the Philippines, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1988. ISBN 0-07-019335-5
  4. ^ a b Carmen Navarytro Pedrosa. The Untold Story of Imelda Marcos, Manila: Bookmark, 1969, p. 3-4.
  5. ^ "Mrs. Marcos / Assassination Attempt". Television News Archive/Vanderbilt University.
  6. ^ a b McNeill, David (25 February 2006). "The weird world of Imelda Marcos". The Independent. Retrieved 2006-12-30.
  7. ^ Kasaysayan ng Lahi [documentary video],Manila: National Media Production Board, 1974 along with a Green Revolution that encouraged Filipinos to plant vegetables and fruits in their gardens.
  8. ^ Serin, J.R., A.L. Elamil. D.C. Serion, et.al. Ugnayan ng Pamhalaan at Mamamayan. Manila: Bede's Publishing House, Inc., 1979.
  9. ^ Ramona Diaz. Imelda [film]. Ramona Diaz-Independent Television Service, 2003.
  10. ^ "Imeldarabilia: A Final Count". Time/CNN. Feb. 23, 1987. Retrieved 2006-12-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ The exact number of shoes varies between accounts; estimates of up to 3000 pairs of shoes have been published, but Time later reported that the final tally was http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,963620,00.html 1,060].
  12. ^ Department of Transportation and Communications Memorandum Circular No. 89-291, dated June 9, 1989. Excerpts: "Resolved, as it its is hereby resolved that, in the interest of national security and tranquility and pursuant to the declared national policy, any aircraft carrying deposed president Ferdinand E. Marcos is prohibited from entering Philippine airspace or, landing or disembarking in Philippine territory. this prohibition shall apply to the remains in the event of his death."
  13. ^ 177 SCRA 668, The Philippine Supreme Court, voting 8-7, prohibited the return of President Marcos and members of his family to the Philippines
  14. ^ "Judge Wapner, Where Are You?". Time/CNN. Jul. 02, 1990. Retrieved 2007-09-11. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ Commission on Elections. Report of the Commission on Elections to the President and Congress of the Republic of the Philippines. Manila: Commission on Elections, Manila
  16. ^ Imelda Marcos vs. Sandiganbayan, GR. No. 126995 [Supreme Court Resolution], dated October 6, 1998 }
  17. ^ GMA NEWS.TV, Sandigan OKs Imelda bid for daily hearings on graft cases
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Template:First Ladies and Gentleman of the Philippines

Preceded by First Lady of the Philippines
1965–1986 		Succeeded by
Benigno Aquino, Jr.
Did not officially served since Corazon Aquino was President after Sen. Aquino's assassination.
Preceded by
Cirilo Roy C. Montejo
 Representative of the First District of Leyte
1995–1998 		Succeeded by
Alfred S. Romualdez
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