Imelda Marcos, wife of Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos, was a beauty queen who married Ferdinand after a whirlwind courtship. As first lady, she held many official positions and famously tried to have the Beatles assassinated. She is known for her extravagant shoe collection and ownership of expensive properties, which were eventually seized by the government. The Marcos family was deposed in a bloodless revolution in 1986.
Imelda Marcos, born July 2, 1929, is the famous and controversial wife of the late Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos. A beauty queen with an education degree, she exploited her charms in a whirlwind courtship with young Ferdinand, which resulted in marriage. The couple have four children: Maria Imelda (nicknamed Imee), Ferdinand Jr. (Bong-bong), Irene Marcos-Araneta, and an adopted daughter, Aimee.
Marcos became the first lady of the Philippines in 1965 when she was just 36 years old. The following year, she was famously snubbed by the Beatles, who failed to show up for a breakfast at the presidential palace. This snub was nationally televised, resulting in a nationwide media-manipulated backlash against the musicians. Unfounded rumors say that the first lady tried, unsuccessfully, to have the Beatles assassinated. They immediately fled the country in fear for their lives.
In 1972, at the end of his second term as president, Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, effectively suspending many civil rights and guaranteeing the continuity of his power. During the martial law period, Imelda Marcos became a public figure in government, holding many official positions. She was named “Governor of Metro Manila”, a post that did not originally exist and has since been discontinued, “Minister of Human Settlements” and the strange sounding “Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary”.
It famously relocated impoverished squatters to more discreet locations during visits by key foreign personnel, reasoning they were “eyesores”. She is also known for her extravagant shoe collection and once owned Manhattan’s $51 million United States Dollar (USD) Crown Building and the $60 million Herald Center. These properties were eventually seized, together with her art collection – which included works by Michelangelo, Botticelli and Canaletto – her jewels and some other valuable possessions. The Philippine government claims that the funds used to acquire these assets were stolen from the national treasury.
The almost comically selfish Marcos is often quoted as saying the reason he was spending so much on luxuries was because the country’s poor needed something to aspire to. They needed a guiding light, he said, so they could be inspired to improve their lives. He reiterates this notion, and many of his other bizarre philosophies, in a documentary about his life called Imelda which was released internationally in 2003.
After numerous human rights violations and the suspension of the Philippine constitution, the Marcos family was finally deposed in a bloodless revolution in 1986. The Marcoses found themselves forced to flee to Hawaii when their government crumbled and the presidential palace was overrun by mobs enraged.
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