Imeldific

I had the chance to watch a documentary in Dubai One last night about the world famous Filipina, Imelda Romualdez Marcos. I forgot the title of the said documentary but it documents Imelda’s rose to power. I will have to admit because of cosmetic surgeries, she’s still very beautiful to this day.

We’ve heard several accusations against the Marcoses in the past. At first, I just want to take in all the negative things thrown to the Marcoses. As I grow older though, I’ve realized that the Philippines was better during the Marcos era. People are disciplined and our country was clean and beautiful. There were accusations against Imelda that her beautification projects are just covering the true state of the nation. They said that poverty still exists and the Marcoses are in denial. There were also accusations that they’ve enriched themselves at the expense of the Filipino people. Well, they might have but life during the Marcos era is still better than today.

When the Marcoses were overthrown by the over rated EDSA revolt, the succeeding governments were not able to address poverty. In fact, Cory Aquino’s tenure as a leader saw a ballooning increase in population and poverty. It’s because of Cory’s ineffectiveness as a leader and her faith as a devoted catholic. It’s alright to be prayerful but it affected her decision on reproductive health. The Catholics are against birth control and it’s the root cause of poverty. Cory’s incapacity to lead put our country into downward spiral.

Imelda Marcos maybe ostentatious, flamboyant and out of touch to the reality but she really did develop Filipino’s cultural identity. She built the CCP after all. Her butterfly sleeved Filipiniana ternos can be seen all over the world. In New York, an exclusive shoe store there has a roll up saying “Everyone has an Imelda in us”. It only goes to show that she’s known in New York. Good or bad, the news that Imelda generate had put our country in the map.

To her detractors, she’s called Imeldific that means ostentatious display of wealth and power. Imelda said that she’s ostentatious to the non believers of beauty. She said that if you’re religious you lit candles and incense and decorate your altar with flowers. For her, or for the believers, doing all those stuff is not ostentatious. But for none believers of beauty it is. She doesn’t see any point of arguing with people her beliefs. She just wants beauty in everything.

Imelda’s extensive art collections, thousands of shoes, tons of jewelries and hoards of money can never be explained. I doubt that our generation can even trace their origins. We may like or dislike the Marcoses but there’s no doubt that Imelda Marcos will always be a part of the Philippine history.