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Abstract

time that Imelda owned thousands of pairs of shoes. This information would have been nothing more than another curious fact about the life of a deposed dictator and his wife (often referred to as the “conjugal dictators”), but for the fact that many Filipino citizens lived in abject poverty not to mention severe political repression. Alas, Imelda’s legendary shoe collection was not visible on the tour.Among the most astonishing features of the home was a gold velvet bedspread that, according to the catalogue, once belonged to Tsar Nicholas and Tsarina Alexandra of Russia. The bedspread was embroidered with the crest of the Romanoff family. How President Marcos and Imelda came to possess this bedspread I cannot imagine. But consider the lineage of a bedspread that provided warmth to Tsar Nicholas and then President Marcos. What part of the universe can explain that?As we descended into the house, we came to the public rooms most of which were decorated with French furniture in a style that pre-dated the French Revolution. Of course, it did. I don’t know whether this furniture actually came from the Court of Marie Antoinette, but Marie Antoinette was the decorative style that felt “comfy” to Imelda and Ferdinand.On the walls in the public rooms were several bare spots where famous paintings had apparently once hung. This included paintings by Michelangelo, Goya, Monet, Braque and Manet.On the landings outside the public rooms were hung various 10 foot high paintings of Ferdinand, Imelda and the first family including their children Imee, Ferdinand Jr, and Irene. These paintings stood out not only because of their size but also because the barong shirts worn by father and son were painted so one could see through their shirts to their undershirts. Was this a stylistic decision by the artist or intended to furnish viewers with an opportunity to view arm muscles beneath their jackets?One of the more poignant features of the tour was the basement which contained the servants’ quarters and the kitchen. Each of the servants’ rooms was roughly 8 feet long and 6 feet wide. They contained nothing but mattresses on the floor and small bedside tables illuminated by single overhead light bulbs.Most devastating of all at the base of the stairs was a pile perhaps three feet high of clearly empty jewellery cases from world-famous jewellers. Whoever organized the auction placed a printed sign in front of the boxes explaining the empty boxes had been left behind, but the whereabouts of the jewels were unknown.Some weeks after the tour, the contents of the townhouse were auctioned off at a hotel near Kennedy Airport on a weekend. I’m pretty sure top-of-the-line auction houses don’t hold their auctions at hotels near the Airport. We went to the auction to witness the final unravelling of it all.The auction was surprisingly crowded. We bought nothing ourselves given the karma of the situation, but evidently, those who bought lots weren’t fussed at all. Presumably, someone even bought the Nicholas and Alexandra bedspread.These memories came back to me b

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ecause it looks as though Filipino voters are about to elect Imelda Marcos’ son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (who goes by the name Bongbong), as their next President, in spite of the Marcos family history in the Philippines.According to several reports, Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos allegedly made off with roughly Ten Billion Dollars from Philippine Government coffers as well as private businesses in which they leveraged control.During the period between 1972 and 1981, when Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law, 34,000 people were tortured, more than 3,000 were executed, 77 simply “disappeared” and 70,000 were imprisoned after warrantless arrests, according to Amnesty International.After the Marcos family fled the Philippines in 1986, the new Government of Corazon Aquino established the Presidential Commission on Good Government to pursue and seek the return of the stolen money, art, property and jewels. I’ve read that the Commission has retrieved about a third of the loot, having become bogged down in endless litigation.Experts expect if Bongbong is elected President, he will shut down the Commission. Bongbong says he won’t shut the Commission, but will instead broaden its function to investigate all fraud instead of the frauds committed by Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos.And what of the wrongs committed during the twenty years of Marcos rule?Apart from one of Mrs Marcos's secretaries who tried to sell four of the stolen masterpieces, no one has gone to jail. Imelda was convicted in 2018 in a Philippine court of funnelling $250,000 in public money to Swiss companies, but she is appealing that ruling and, in view of her advanced age, was permitted to post bail and avoid jail.Ferdinand Sr. died in Hawaii in 1989, but President Duterte, the current President of the Philippines, allowed Ferdinand Sr’s remains to be moved to the “National Heroes” cemetery in the Philippines in 2016.As to the rest of the alleged wrongdoing, Bongbong’s sister Imee was quoted in The New York Times as saying “The millennials have moved on and I think people of my age should move on as well…I am not an apologist for my dad, and I think his work and his projects speak for themselves.”Reports in the Philippine press indicate that Bongbong’s campaign has deployed hundreds of bots dedicated to burnishing the image of the Marcos family and attacking opposition candidates. Indeed Facebook has taken down three hundred accounts for inauthentic behavior. Bongbong vehemently denies the use of such tactics.For those of us who walked through the rooms of the Manhattan townhouse on that hot summer day (not to mention the families of those executed or who suffered extreme political repression under the Ferdinand Marcos regime), forgetting the past is not quite that easy. I suppose if Bongbong wins the election, he can move back to the presidential palace and even bring Imelda with him. Maybe they can locate that Nicholas and Alexandra bedspread and it will be as if none of it ever happened.© 2022 L.E. Langner. All rights reserved.</article></body>

The Fabulous Townhouse of Imelda Marcos

Will Philippine Election Mark Return of Dictatorship as a Family Business

I’ve long harbored a curiosity for the outlandish as well as an interest in those who dedicate themselves to the unabashed pursuit of extravagance. The word “Imeldific” was coined in the 1980s for those committed to this lifestyle in recognition of the astonishing and shameless shopaholic achievements of Imelda Marcos.

I too seldom have the chance to indulge this curiosity, but after Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos decamped from the Philippines in February 1986, the successor Government decided to auction off the contents of the Marcos’ Manhattan townhouse with proceeds to be used for the benefit of the Philippines

The Marcos duo escaped the Philippines on two U.S. military transport planes at the behest of the Reagan administration when it became clear the political climate back home had reached boiling point.

As a prelude to the auction, the townhouse was opened to the public and as you can imagine, I trotted over for a look-see and it did not disappoint. The open house was held in mid-summer when New York City was quite warm and humid.

The townhouse was located on 66th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues. If you’re from out-of-town, you can picture this as one of the poshest parts of the City. The last time I shopped on Madison Avenue, individual tomatoes were wrapped in tissue paper and sold for more than Five Dollars apiece. After that tomato purchase (at my grandmother’s behest), I didn’t shop in Madison again.

The rooms of the Marcos townhouse were cordoned off, but one could easily see most of the sale items from behind the red velvet ropes. The auction company had prepared a sale catalogue so prospective buyers could evaluate the provenance of various items.

The tour began on the top floor which was fitted out as a private disco complete with mirrored ball and DJ console. Against the walls were banquettes adorned with pillows bearing mottos to live by: “Nouveau riche is better than no riche at all,” “Good girls go to heaven, but bad girls go everywhere,” and “I love champagne, caviar and cash.”

After feasting our eyes on the private disco, we descended a very narrow stairway to the lower floors which included various bedrooms among them the bedroom and bathroom suite of Ferdinand and Imelda. The fixtures in the bathroom suite were gold and the porcelain was decorated with a floral design that precisely matched the hand-embroidered white and yellow towels. In front of an armoire, a pair of Imelda’s shoes were delicately placed as if the first lady had just finished dressing and was downstairs entertaining guests.

It was widely reported at the time that Imelda owned thousands of pairs of shoes. This information would have been nothing more than another curious fact about the life of a deposed dictator and his wife (often referred to as the “conjugal dictators”), but for the fact that many Filipino citizens lived in abject poverty not to mention severe political repression. Alas, Imelda’s legendary shoe collection was not visible on the tour.

Among the most astonishing features of the home was a gold velvet bedspread that, according to the catalogue, once belonged to Tsar Nicholas and Tsarina Alexandra of Russia. The bedspread was embroidered with the crest of the Romanoff family. How President Marcos and Imelda came to possess this bedspread I cannot imagine. But consider the lineage of a bedspread that provided warmth to Tsar Nicholas and then President Marcos. What part of the universe can explain that?

As we descended into the house, we came to the public rooms most of which were decorated with French furniture in a style that pre-dated the French Revolution. Of course, it did. I don’t know whether this furniture actually came from the Court of Marie Antoinette, but Marie Antoinette was the decorative style that felt “comfy” to Imelda and Ferdinand.

On the walls in the public rooms were several bare spots where famous paintings had apparently once hung. This included paintings by Michelangelo, Goya, Monet, Braque and Manet.

On the landings outside the public rooms were hung various 10 foot high paintings of Ferdinand, Imelda and the first family including their children Imee, Ferdinand Jr, and Irene. These paintings stood out not only because of their size but also because the barong shirts worn by father and son were painted so one could see through their shirts to their undershirts. Was this a stylistic decision by the artist or intended to furnish viewers with an opportunity to view arm muscles beneath their jackets?

One of the more poignant features of the tour was the basement which contained the servants’ quarters and the kitchen. Each of the servants’ rooms was roughly 8 feet long and 6 feet wide. They contained nothing but mattresses on the floor and small bedside tables illuminated by single overhead light bulbs.

Most devastating of all at the base of the stairs was a pile perhaps three feet high of clearly empty jewellery cases from world-famous jewellers. Whoever organized the auction placed a printed sign in front of the boxes explaining the empty boxes had been left behind, but the whereabouts of the jewels were unknown.

Some weeks after the tour, the contents of the townhouse were auctioned off at a hotel near Kennedy Airport on a weekend. I’m pretty sure top-of-the-line auction houses don’t hold their auctions at hotels near the Airport. We went to the auction to witness the final unravelling of it all.

The auction was surprisingly crowded. We bought nothing ourselves given the karma of the situation, but evidently, those who bought lots weren’t fussed at all. Presumably, someone even bought the Nicholas and Alexandra bedspread.

These memories came back to me because it looks as though Filipino voters are about to elect Imelda Marcos’ son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (who goes by the name Bongbong), as their next President, in spite of the Marcos family history in the Philippines.

According to several reports, Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos allegedly made off with roughly Ten Billion Dollars from Philippine Government coffers as well as private businesses in which they leveraged control.

During the period between 1972 and 1981, when Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law, 34,000 people were tortured, more than 3,000 were executed, 77 simply “disappeared” and 70,000 were imprisoned after warrantless arrests, according to Amnesty International.

After the Marcos family fled the Philippines in 1986, the new Government of Corazon Aquino established the Presidential Commission on Good Government to pursue and seek the return of the stolen money, art, property and jewels. I’ve read that the Commission has retrieved about a third of the loot, having become bogged down in endless litigation.

Experts expect if Bongbong is elected President, he will shut down the Commission. Bongbong says he won’t shut the Commission, but will instead broaden its function to investigate all fraud instead of the frauds committed by Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos.

And what of the wrongs committed during the twenty years of Marcos rule?

Apart from one of Mrs Marcos's secretaries who tried to sell four of the stolen masterpieces, no one has gone to jail. Imelda was convicted in 2018 in a Philippine court of funnelling $250,000 in public money to Swiss companies, but she is appealing that ruling and, in view of her advanced age, was permitted to post bail and avoid jail.

Ferdinand Sr. died in Hawaii in 1989, but President Duterte, the current President of the Philippines, allowed Ferdinand Sr’s remains to be moved to the “National Heroes” cemetery in the Philippines in 2016.

As to the rest of the alleged wrongdoing, Bongbong’s sister Imee was quoted in The New York Times as saying “The millennials have moved on and I think people of my age should move on as well…I am not an apologist for my dad, and I think his work and his projects speak for themselves.”

Reports in the Philippine press indicate that Bongbong’s campaign has deployed hundreds of bots dedicated to burnishing the image of the Marcos family and attacking opposition candidates. Indeed Facebook has taken down three hundred accounts for inauthentic behavior. Bongbong vehemently denies the use of such tactics.

For those of us who walked through the rooms of the Manhattan townhouse on that hot summer day (not to mention the families of those executed or who suffered extreme political repression under the Ferdinand Marcos regime), forgetting the past is not quite that easy. I suppose if Bongbong wins the election, he can move back to the presidential palace and even bring Imelda with him. Maybe they can locate that Nicholas and Alexandra bedspread and it will be as if none of it ever happened.