The goddess of justice Themis is usually portrayed with a bandage over her eyes, but when she has to stand in the way of multibillion-dollar theft, her hands are often also tied. Imelda Romualdez Marcos, the widow of the last dictator of the Philippines, proved this truth with all its brilliance. She and her late husband Ferdinand were charged with misappropriation of at least $10 billion, extortion, fraud and tax evasion. According to the laws of the United States, where the case was heard, Imelda was threatened with 50 years in prison, but she left the courtroom acquitted of all charges.
Daughter of a dissolute father
Even before the 1986 coup d'état forced Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, who held a number of key government posts, to flee the country, a book written by journalist Carmen Pedroza was banned - “The untold story of Imelda Marcos.”
In it, the author very carelessly touched on a sensitive topic, namely the childhood that the president's wife spent in the house of her parents, people who, although not poor, often gave rise to numerous gossip. Despite the fact that her father Vicente Orestes belonged to an influential Filipino family, whose members occupied a high position in society, he himself enjoyed a very bad reputation as an inveterate drunkard and spenders. The First Lady did not allow anyone to mention this.
After the death of his first wife, who could not stand the constant scandals and humiliations, the 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. Having matured, the girl often spent the night in the garage, escaping there from the outrages that were happening at home. These pages of her childhood were also taboo.
First Beauty of the Philippines
Fate was very favorable to her, generously endowing her with beauty, musical abilities, intelligence and, most importantly, truly iron perseverance. All these qualities allowed the young girl to turn over time into a legend that struck the minds of her contemporaries with her enormous we alth, the criminal source of which only gave her a certain piquancy in the eyes of her admirers.
Imelda's mother, like the first wife of her dissolute father, passed away early, but thanks to her cares, her daughter still managed to graduate from college in the city of Tacloban and get a bachelor's degree. The true success of Imelda and the beginning of a brilliant career was the victory at the beauty contest held in 1948, where she won the title of Miss Philippines.
From that time on, many prominent politicians and businessmen sought the favor of the young beauty, but the girl knew her worth and, like a truethe player, for the time being, protected her main trump card ─ virginity, which in Catholic Manila was valued above all else. Filled with the most incredible ambitions, Imelda was waiting for someone who would make her not a guest, but the mistress of a fabulous world of we alth and luxury. And she got what she wanted.
Future dictator
Her relatives' home in Manila was frequented by leaders of the Nationalist Party, making it essentially their headquarters. Communicating with them, Imelda learned to navigate the diversity of the political life of the country. In 1954, during one of these informal meetings, she met her future husband, Ferdinand Marcos, a member of the House of Philippine Congress, who soon proposed to her. So the young beauty became known as Imelda Marcos.
Her chosen one was a very outstanding personality, so it's worth dwelling on him in more detail. Born in 1917 to a lawyer who practiced in a small town 400 kilometers from Manila, Ferdinand graduated from college and followed in his father's footsteps to become a lawyer.
However, for the first time, he showed his talent as a lawyer in the most eccentric way. The fact is that in 1939, in front of everyone, Marcos shot his father’s political opponent with a revolver, for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. However, at the second trial, he undertook to defend himself, and so deftly conducted the case that he was acquitted. This immediately earned him an extensive clientele.
During World War II, a young lawyer fought the Japanese in the rankspartisan detachment, but at the same time, according to eyewitnesses, he managed to pull off major scams on the black market. A military past and numerous orders, for 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 election - he became the 10th President of the Philippines. The future dictator, who stole the lion's share of the country's national we alth during the years of his reign, won this victory, oddly enough, under the slogan of fighting corruption, in which his predecessor was involved. However, such examples are by no means uncommon in world history.
Triumphant flight of the Iron Butterfly
Imelda Marcos, whose photos at different periods of her life are given in the article, and her husband Ferdinand were the best match for each other. His business acumen and complete unscrupulousness in the choice of means were perfectly complemented by the beauty and charm of his wife. It was this combination that allowed both - Ferdinand Marcos and his wife - pushing aside competitors, climb to the top of the political and financial Olympus.
During his twenty-year reign, Imelda held a number of key positions. In particular, she was the governor of Manila, a minister, a member of parliament, and, in addition, in the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, she carried out important diplomatic missions. In 1975, Mrs. Marcos visited the USSR and was received in the Kremlin by Leonid Brezhnev. For the beauty, combined in it withextraordinary strength of character, Imelda Marcos was popularly nicknamed the "Iron Butterfly".
The couple's salaries were relatively low, but they nevertheless lived in extraordinary luxury, transferring millions of American dollars, sent as aid to the people of the Philippines, to personal bank accounts in Switzerland and Rome. Dozens of financial agents purchased real estate for them in European and American countries, registering it, as a rule, for nominees.
Military dictatorship instead 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, the ever-increasing greed caused a change in domestic political course, in which large-scale thefts committed by him and his wife Imelda Marcos could be openly criticism and exposure.
He won the next presidential election in 1969, shamelessly resorting to intimidation, bribery and vote rigging, and after 3 years he finally buried democracy by introducing a military dictatorship in the country. The formal reason for this was an attempt on the life of one of the high-ranking officials of Marcos, which, according to many journalists, was staged by him.
The martial law established in the country was accompanied by mass repressions against all who dared to raise their voices of protest. Thousands of opposition-minded Filipinos were thrown into prison without trial, many of whom disappeared without a trace in the dungeons of the bloody dictator.
Plundering one's own country
In parallel with the tightening of the regime in the country, the standard of living of its ordinary citizens fell catastrophically. This was due to the fact that national we alth, as well as the multimillion-dollar sums allocated by the world community and, above all, America, to boost the economy of the Philippines, were barbarously plundered by the Marcos spouses, as well as by an insatiable pack of their relatives and close associates, for each of whom there was a place at the state trough.
Nothing can corrupt people like absolute power. This truth, having become a banality for a long time, nevertheless finds more and more confirmations. In this case, Imelda Marcos herself can serve as a vivid example of this. In addition to budgetary funds, which fell into her bank accounts in various ways, she received colossal incomes from thirty leading state corporations personally headed by her, which she disposed of as if she were her own property.
For a long time, huge sums in the form of "black cash" were packed and taken out of the country. The scale of the theft of that period may be evidenced by a curious fact established by investigators after the fall of the dictatorial regime. One day, Imelda Marcos sent so many suitcases of money to a Geneva bank that a telegram came from there asking them to temporarily stop, as the staff could not cope with the processing of deposits.
Miss Marcos' Little Weaknesses
All this allowed the Iron Butterfly to live in fabulous luxury. In addition to luxury residences in the Philippines, sheowned a lot of expensive real estate in various countries of the world. It is even known that she was one step away from buying the famous New York Empire State Building ─ a world trade center located on Manhattan Island. She refused the deal only when she heard somewhere that the architecture of the building was too pretentious.
The grandiose shopping trips Imelda arranged during her trips abroad have become a real legend. A 1970 document fell into the hands of investigators, according to which, in just one day spent in Geneva, the Iron Butterfly managed to spend 9 million pounds. A month later, on a visit to New York, she shipped home groceries that barely fit into three huge shipping containers.
Imelda Marcos' jewelry deserves special attention. She was addicted to them and bought in incredible quantities. Suffice it to say that, in addition to gold items with diamonds and other precious stones, the investigators found so many pearls of the highest grades in their hands that they could cover an area of 38 square meters.
Like any woman, the companion of the Philippine dictator loved beautiful outfits. But with her, this passion took on completely hypertrophic forms. The shoes of Imelda Marcos became the talk of the town, of which 360 pairs were discovered after her flight from the country. In addition to national costumes, which were made in a personal, only serving her atelier, 160 dresses from the leadingworld couturiers. It is known that they were always delivered by special flights of airlines.
It has long been known that the owners of such untold we alth tend to lose sight of the real value of their belongings. This can be confirmed by the testimony of a sales agent, whose duties included compiling an inventory of property left by the wife of the deposed dictator after fleeing the country.
In his reports, he writes about precious crystal, fragments of which were found among the chimney ash, about unique manuscripts of the 12th century, thrust under a steam boiler. An antique mirror, purchased at an auction in Paris and once owned by Louis XIV, lay smashed in the middle of the room. Piles of the finest bed linen, on which entire workshops of embroiderers worked, rotted in closets and were covered with mold. A huge collection of Imelda Marcos shoes gathered dust in the empty spaces of the wardrobe.
The collapse of the dictator
Meanwhile, the situation in the country was gradually heating up. The miserable situation of the main part of its citizens became the reason for the growing mortality from hunger and disease every year. The authorities did not take any measures, caring only to hide the real state of affairs from the world community.
Social explosion occurred in 1983. The detonator for him was the murder of Senator Benigno Aquino, who returned from exile, Marcos's political opponent. Despite the statement of the authorities that the murdered man was sent by a communist agent, no one believed them, and the widow of the late Corazon Aquino, taking advantage of the growingcountry of discontent, managed to initiate a military coup.
She, having visited Washington, convinced the American government that the overthrown dictator was, in essence, a corrupt and insignificant person. As a result, First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos and her husband were forced to flee the country, which for the past 20 years they considered their personal fiefdom.
Shame on American justice
Now let's go back to the beginning of the article and try to find out what prevented the American Themis from punishing the thieving family. First of all, the dictator himself did not live to see the start of the process and died on September 28, 1989 from kidney disease, so Imelda Marcos alone had to answer.
The story is pretty dark. It is officially announced that all the charges against her collapsed due to the refusal of the management of Swiss banks to provide accusers with data on the accounts belonging to her. They sent an equally categorical response to the new government of the Philippines, headed by Corazon Aquino, the widow of the murdered senator. Imelda Marcos, in exile, faced 80 charges related to various economic crimes, but none resulted in a conviction.
There have been many different speculations as to why the prosecutor's office so quickly backed down on their charges. But, one way or another, Imelda Marcos (the photo is given below), who looked contemptuously at her judges during all the days of the trial, wasjustified due to lack of evidence. She left the courtroom with her fingers clasped in the victory sign "victory" (photo above).
Homecoming
Imelda Marcos didn't last long in exile. 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, pushed aside at one time from the trough. Yesterday's corruption fighters began to frantically tear apart everything that the Marcos did not have time to plunder. As a result, many regretted that they rushed to expel their former rulers from the country.
Thanks to these sentiments that gripped society in 1991, the government was forced to allow the return of Imelda Marcos. At the Manila airport, she was met by a crowd of her supporters, who apparently saw in her a lesser evil than that which was Corazon Aquino, who was in power. Strange as it may seem, but upon returning home after a very shameful flight, the wife of the former dictator managed to continue her political career. She was elected to Congress and became a member of the House of Representatives three times ─ in 1995, 2010 and 2013.
She is still in good he alth, although the years take their toll. Imelda Marcos, who in her youth was considered the first beauty of the Philippines, has not lost much of her former charm in her old age. She lives in an atmosphere of luxury that is familiar to her, and when asked by journalists about the fate of $ 10 billion that disappeared without a trace in the depths of Swiss banks, she answers onlya mysterious smile.
