Imelda Marcos: biography and photos

The goddess of justice Themis is usually depicted with a bandage in her eyes, but when she has to get up on the path of multibillion theft, her hands are often bound together. This truth with all the brilliance proved Imelda Romualdez Marcos ─ the widow of the last dictator of the Philippines. She and her late husband Ferdinand were accused of illegally misappropriating at least $ 10 billion, extortion, fraud and non-payment of taxes. According to the laws of the United States, where there was a hearing of the case, Imelde was threatened with 50 years in prison, but from the courtroom she came out justified on all charges.

The daughter of a dissolute father

Long before the 1986 coup, the Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, who held a number of key government posts, were forced to flee the country, a book written by journalist Carmen Pedroza, "The Untold Story of Imelda Marcos" .

In it, the author very carelessly touched on the sensitive issue, namely the childhood, which the president's wife spent at the parents' house, though not poor, but often giving rise to numerous gossips. Despite the fact that her father Vicente Orestes belonged to an influential Filipino family whose members held a high position in society, he himself enjoyed a very bad reputation as an inveterate drunkard and spender. About this the first lady did not allow anyone to remember.

After the death of her first wife, who could not stand the constant scandals and humiliations, my father hurried to marry a very young sixteen-year-old girl, who became the mother of five children, the eldest of whom was Imelda Marcos, who was born on July 2, 1929. Growing up, the girl often spent the night in the garage, fleeing there from the disgrace that was going on at home. On these pages of her childhood there was also a taboo.

The first beauty of the Philippines

Fate was very kind to her, generously endowed with beauty, musical abilities, intelligence and, most importantly, truly iron persistence. All these qualities allowed the young girl to turn over time into a legend that amazed the minds of contemporaries with her immense wealth, the criminal source of which only gave her a kind of piquancy in the eyes of admirers.

Imelda's mother, like the first wife of her dissolute father, died early, but thanks to her cares, her daughter managed to graduate from college in Tacloban and obtain a bachelor's degree. Imelda's true success and the beginning of her brilliant career was the victory at the beauty contest held in 1948, where she won the title "Miss Philippines".

Since that time, many prominent politicians and businessmen have sought the favor of the young beauty, but the girl knew the price and, like a true player, kept her main trump card for the time being ─ virginity, which was valued above all in Catholic Manila. Fulfilled by the most incredible ambitions, Imelda was waiting for someone who would make her not a guest, but the mistress of a fabulous world of wealth and luxury. And she got what she wanted.

The future dictator

The house of her relatives in Manila was frequented by the leaders of the nationalist party, making it essentially their headquarters. Communicating with them, Imelda has learned to navigate in the diversity of the country's political life. In 1954, during one of these informal meetings, she met her future husband ─ a deputy of the House of the Philippine Congress, Ferdinand Marcos, who soon proposed to her. So the young beauty began to be called Imelda Marcos.

Her chosen one was a very uncommon person, so it's worthwhile to dwell on it in more detail. Born in 1917 in a family lawyer who practiced in a small town located 400 kilometers from Manila, Ferdinand graduated from college, and following in the footsteps of his father, became a lawyer.

However, he showed his lawyer's talent in the most eccentric way. The fact is that in 1939, in front of everyone, Marcos shot and killed his father's political opponent from the revolver, for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. However, in the re-trial process, he undertook to defend himself, and so dexterously took the case that was justified. This immediately brought him an extensive clientele.

During the Second World War, a young lawyer fought with the Japanese in the ranks of partisan detachment, but at the same time, according to eyewitnesses, managed to turn out large scams in the black market. Combat past and numerous orders, to which he, however, did not have the appropriate award documents, allowed Ferdinand to make a political career after the war and become the youngest congressman in the country.

In 1965, following the results of the general elections, he became the 10th president of the Philippines. This victory, the future dictator, who plundered the lion's share of the country's national wealth over the years of his rule, won, oddly enough, under the slogan of fighting corruption, in which his predecessor was implicated. However, such examples are by no means a rarity in world history.

Triumphant Flight of the Iron Butterfly

Imelda Marcos, a photo of which in different periods of life are given in the article, and her husband Ferdinand could not be better suited to each other. His business acumen and complete unscrupulousness in the choice of funds were perfectly complemented by the beauty and charm of the spouse. It was this combination that allowed both - Ferdinand Marcos and his wife - pushing the competitors back to the top of the political and financial Olympus.

During his twenty-year reign, Imelda held a number of key posts. In particular, she was Governor of Manila, Minister, MP, and, in addition, as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, she carried out important diplomatic assignments. In 1975, Mrs. Marcos visited the USSR and was received in the Kremlin by Leonid Brezhnev. For the beauty, combined in it with an extraordinary firmness of character, Imelda Marcos received the nickname "Iron Butterfly" among the people.

The gratuity received by the spouses was relatively small, but they nevertheless lived in extraordinary luxury, transferring millions of American dollars sent to help the people of the Philippines, into personal bank accounts in Switzerland and Rome. Dozens of financial agents bought real estate for them in Europe and America, making it, as a rule, for frontmen.

Military dictatorship in place of democracy

If the beginning of the reign of the 10th president of the Philippines can be described as a period of democratic freedoms in the country, then over time, increasing greed caused a change in the domestic policy, in which the massive thefts committed by him and his wife Imelda Marcos could be openly criticized and exposed.

He won the next presidential election of 1969, shamelessly resorting to intimidation, bribery and fraud in counting votes, and 3 years later he finally buried democracy, introducing a military dictatorship in the country. The formal reason for this was an attempt on one of the high-ranking officials of Marcos, which, in the opinion of many journalists, was the same and was staged.

The martial law established in the country was accompanied by massive repressions against all those who dared to raise the voice of protest. In prisons without trial and trial, thousands of opposition-minded Filipinos were thrown, many of whom disappeared without a trace in the dungeons of a bloody dictator.

The looting of one's own country

In parallel with the tightening of the regime in the country, the living standards of its ordinary citizens have fallen dramatically. This was due to the fact that the national wealth, as well as the millions of dollars allocated by the world community, and above all America to the rise of the Philippine economy, were barbarously plundered by the Marcos spouses, as well as by the insatiable pack of their relatives and close ones, each of which had a place at the state trough.

Nothing is as capable of corrupting people as absolute power. This truth, having long been banal, finds nevertheless more and more new evidence. In this case, Imelda Marcos herself can serve as a vivid example. In addition to budgetary funds, in various ways falling on her bank accounts, she received enormous revenues from thirty leading personal leading state corporations, which she managed as her property.

For a long time, huge amounts of "black cash" were packed and exported from the country. The scale of the theft of that period can be evidenced by the curious fact established by the investigators after the fall of the dictatorial regime. Once Imelda Marcos sent a quantity of suitcases with money to the Geneva bank, that from there came a telegram with a request to temporarily stop, as the staff can not cope with the registration of deposits.

"Little weaknesses" of Ms. Marcos

All this allowed the Iron Butterfly to live in fabulous luxury. In addition to the luxurious residences in the Philippines, it owned a lot of expensive real estate in various countries around the world. It is even known that it was one step away from buying the famous New York Empire State Building ─ a worldwide shopping center located on the island of Manhattan. She refused the deal, only when she heard somewhere that in its architecture the building was too pretentious.

Became a real legend of the grandiose shopping, arranged Imelda during her trips abroad. In the hands of the investigators came the document of 1970, according to which only one day spent in Geneva, the Iron Butterfly managed to spend 9 million pounds sterling. A month later, after visiting New York, she sent home a purchase that barely fit in three huge sea containers.

Especially noteworthy are the jewels of Imelda Marcos. To them, she was addicted and bought in incredible quantities. Suffice it to say that, in addition to gold jewelry with diamonds and other precious stones, in the hands of the investigators there were so many pearls of the highest grades that they could cover the area of 38 square meters.

Like every woman, a companion of a Filipino dictator loved beautiful outfits. But her passion took on a completely hypertrophic form. The talk of Imelda Marcos, whose after her flight from the country was discovered 360 pairs , was the talk of the town . In addition to the national costumes, which were made in a personal, only its service studio, 160 dresses from the world's leading couturiers were found in the dressing rooms of the main residence. It is known that they were always delivered by special airlines.

It has long been known that the owners of such untold wealth, as a rule, lose the idea of the real value of their belongings. Proof of this may be the testimony of a sales agent whose duties included compiling a list of property left by the wife of the deposed dictator after fleeing the country.

In his reports he writes about the precious crystal, the fragments of which were found among the mantel of ash, about the unique manuscripts of the 12th century, stuck under the steam boiler. An antique mirror, acquired at an auction in Paris and once belonged to Louis XIV, lay scattered in the middle of the room. Piles of the finest bed linen, over which the whole workshops of embroiderers worked, rot in closets and covered with mold. A huge collection of shoes Imeldy Marcos dusted in the empty rooms of the wardrobe.

The collapse of the dictator

Meanwhile, the situation in the country was gradually heated. The miserable situation of the bulk of its citizens has become the cause of the growing mortality every year from hunger and disease. The authorities did not take any measures, taking care only to hide the real state of things from the world community.

The social explosion occurred in 1983. The detonator for him was the murder of Senator Benigno Aquino, who returned from exile political saboteur Marcos. Despite the authorities' statement that the dead man was sent by a communist agent, no one believed them, and the widow of the late Corazon Aquino, using the growing discontent in the country, managed to initiate a military coup.

She, having visited Washington, convinced the American government that the deposed dictator was, in fact, a corrupt and insignificant person. As a result, the first lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos and her husband were forced to flee the country, which they considered as their personal patrimony for the last 20 years.

The shame of American justice

Now let's return to the beginning of the article and try to find out what prevented the American Themis from punishing the bewildered family. First of all, the dictator himself did not live up to the beginning of the process and died on September 28, 1989 from kidney disease, so the answer was to be kept only by Imelde Marcos.

The story is rather dark. It is officially announced that all the charges brought against her have collapsed due to the refusal of the leadership of Swiss banks to provide prosecutors with data on her accounts. They also sent a similar categorical response to the new government of the Philippines, whose head was Korason Aquino ─ the widow of the murdered senator. Imelde Marcos exiled 80 charges against various economic crimes, but none of them led to a conviction.

The reason why the prosecutor's office so quickly receded from its charges, many different assumptions were put forward. But, one way or another, Imelda Marcos (pictured below) during all the days of the process scornfully looked at her judges, was justified for lack of evidence. She left the courtroom, folding her fingers in the victorious "victoria" sign (photo above).

Homecoming

Imelda Marcos stayed in exile for a short time. During her absence, a large clan of the widow Aquino came to power in the country, as well as a number of representatives of the former aristocracy, who had been pushed back from the feeding trough. Yesterday's fighters against corruption began furiously tearing everything that did not have time to plunder Marcosa. As a result, many were sorry that they hurried to expel their former rulers from the country.

Thanks to these moods that gripped society in 1991, the government was forced to give permission for the return of Imelda Marcos. At the airport in Manila, she was greeted by a crowd of her supporters, apparently seeing less evil in her than the one that was in power Corazon Aquino. Strange as it may seem, but after returning to his homeland after a very shameful flight, the wife of the former dictator managed to continue her political career. She thrice - in 1995, 2010 and 2013 - was elected to the Congress and became a member of the House of Representatives.

It still does, although the years are taking their toll. Imelda Marcos, in her youth was considered the first beauty of the Philippines, and in her old age did not lose much of her former charm. She lives in the atmosphere of her usual luxury and the journalists' questions about the fate of $ 10 billion, which have vanished in the bowels of Swiss banks, responds with a mysterious smile.