Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE IRON BUTTERFLY
Imelda Remedios Visitación
was born on July 2, 1929, in the little town of Tolosa in Leyte.
Her youth was troubled, her parents always quarrelling, separating and reconciling, her
feckless father unable to hold down a job. Aged 23 she left Leyte for Manila with just five
pesos in her purse, seeking her fortune. Her break came in 1953, when a magazine editor
featured her face on his cover; she then entered a beauty contest and won the title of
Miss Manila
. Ferdinand Marcos later recounted that he saw the magazine picture and
told friends, “I'm getting married.” He arranged an introduction and, after an eleven-day
courtship, proposed.
Following his 1965 election victory, Marcos said of Imelda, “She was worth a million votes.” In
fact, Imelda had cleverly inveigled tycoon Fernando Lopez into standing as Marcos's vice
president, bringing with him his family's immeasurable fortune. Once the election was won,
Imelda announced she would be “more than a mere decorative figure” and in 1966 made her
international debut when she sang to Lyndon Johnson at a White House dinner. “A blessing
not only to her country, but also to the world”, gushed a US newspaper columnist.
Imelda believed that nothing succeeds like excess and laid on lavish fiestas for every
visiting dignitary. She also posed as a patron of the arts flying in international stars such as
Margot Fonteyn. Her husband later made her
governor of Manila
with a brief to turn the
city into a showpiece. She set about the task with gusto, spending P37 million on the
Coconut Palace (see p.70) and at least P100 million on the Manila Film Center (see box,
p.70). As well as a patron of the arts, the First Lady also appointed herself the country's
roving envoy, relentlessly roaming the world on jumbo jets “borrowed” from Philippine
Airlines to meet the likes of Fidel Castro, Emperor Hirohito and Chairman Mao. A prodigious
social climber, she pursued Rockefellers and Fords, and dreamed of betrothing her
daughter Imee to Prince Charles.
Throughout much of the 1980s Imelda went on notoriously profligate
shopping binges
to
New York and Los Angeles, spending millions of dollars on grotesque art, jewellery and the
occasional apartment. In Geneva, another favourite haunt, she spent US$12 million in jewellery
in a single day. After her husband's downfall in 1986, Imelda became deeply upset at reports
that three thousand pairs of
shoes
had been found inside the Malacañang Palace, claiming
she had only accumulated them to promote the Philippine shoe industry in her trips abroad.
The shoes became the most potent symbol of her mad spending.
Imelda returned to Manila in 1991, and in a shocking confirmation of her continued
popularity in some quarters, she was elected Congresswoman of Leyte (her home province),
four years later; in 2010 she was elected to represent the second district of Ilocos Norte,
replacing her son Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. (who was elected to the Senate), and was re-elected to
the same post three years later. Various corruption cases against Imelda have dragged on
painfully through the courts over the years, but her nickname - the
Iron Butterfly
, for her
thick-skinned bravura - is surely well deserved.
Marcos (1917-89) was born in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte. A brilliant young lawyer who
had successfully defended himself against a murder charge, he was elected to the
Philippine House of Representatives in 1949, to the Senate in 1959 and became
president in 1965 on the Nacionalista Party ticket, defeating incumbent Macapagal.
Marcos's first term as president was innovative and inspirational. He invigorated both
populace and bureaucracy, embarking on a huge
infrastructure
programme and
unifying scattered islands with a network of roads, bridges, railways and ports.
1942
1944
1946
Japan defeats US forces in the
Philippines in World War II.
US forces retake
the Philippines
Republic of the Philippines becomes
fully independent; Manuel Roxas
first president