Found in the book Waltzing With A Dictator, (1987), by Raymond Bonner, was a claim made by the Cosmopolitan magazine in December 1975 that Imelda Marcos was one of the ten richest women in the world alongside Queen Elizabeth of England, Christina Onassis Andreadis, Barbara Hutton, and Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, among others. Bonner added that the magazine even suggested she might be the “richest woman in the world, bar none.”
The incredible progress of Imelda Marcos was mind-blowing. Her husband’s salary for the past ten years since becoming Philippine president had been less than $5,000 a year.
The Central Intelligence Agency or CIA in Manila conducted a little informal study, Bonner noted. The station determined that Imelda Marcos’s portfolio consisted of three to four dozen companies, including several banks. In total, her net worth was at least $150 million.
Found in the CIA files, under section headed “The Steel Butterfly” the CIA analyst, begins:
”Mrs. Marcos is ambitious and ruthless. Born a poor cousin of landed aristocracy, she has a thirst for wealth, power and public acclaim, and her boundless ego makes her easy prey for flatters. Although she has little formal education, she is cunning.
Her political organization is largely made up of media people and businessmen, plus a scattering of politicians and a few military men. Most are sycophants seeking protection.
Her political advancement has been handled largely by her brother, Benjamin Romualdez, absentee governor of Leyte Province, home of Imelda’s family”
The CIA analyst concluded that the “Marcos marriage was essentially a business and political partnership.” He was head of government; she was head of state. It was a conjugal partnership.
Prior to my writing the Fall of a Dictator, I was more skeptic than eager to dig into the horrible past of the Marcos rule. Part of my skepticism is that the topic is now passé. It has been 23 years now since Marcos fled the country and eventually succumbed to his own sorry death.
What triggered me to finally bring to light the abuse of power by the Marcoses and their cronies, however, is, foremost, to disabuse the lingering belief of some still misguided Filipinos who think we owe things to them. Second, I desire that while history is oftentimes repeats itself, the lessons we can learn from the Marcoses and their cronies would put the break on repeating history.
MORE TO COME.
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