Imelda Marcos

With my husband

“She says she changed her shoes every day for eight years. She has never worn the same shoes for a single day.”

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Introduction to her biographical film Imelda

• 1965~1986 Spouse of the 10th President of the Philippines
• 1975-1986 First Governor of Metro Manila
• 1978~1984 Member of the National Assembly, District 6, Metro Manila
• 2010~2019 Member of the House of Representatives, 2nd District, Ilocos North

We often know that Imelda Marcos is extravagant, but we do not know how extravagant she is. So, there are many people who believe rumors and rumors, but these stories are all true, and even the publicly known information is much reduced than the truth.

Later, when Imelda left for exile in Hawaii with her husband Ferdinand Marcos , there was a large room measuring 21m in width and 21m in length in the basement of the Malacanang Palace where Imelda lived.

British photojournalist Alex Bowie , who visited the presidential palace at the time, said he could not keep his mouth shut when he saw the high-end clothes, shoes , handbags, and accessories designed by the world's most famous designers piled up in Imelda Marcos' closet in the basement of the presidential palace.

Below is a list of Imelda's luxury items discovered when the Marcoses fled to Hawaii in 1986. (Part of a Dong-A Ilbo article dated March 11, 1986. )

• 3,000 pairs of shoes from top brands . In fact, it is an item that symbolizes Imelda's luxury. Even shoes decorated with gold or silver are standard, and in the 1980s, batteries were installed in the shoes, so there were even shoes that lit up whenever you moved.
• Hundreds of top-notch costumes
• Next to a large mirror over 2m in length, French It was full of Louis Vuitton handbags.
• 68 Pairs of the Most Expensive Party Gloves
• 3,500 panties of various famous brands
• 2,000 finest evening gowns
• There were 500 top-notch black bras , and even bras that could be bulletproof.
• 30 Finest Wigs
• 200 boxes of unopened stockings
• Hundreds of jewelry boxes of the highest quality . One of the jewels was also found with a price tag of $19,000.
• In one corner of the room, countless high-end, brand-new luxury bags were piled up.

• The interior of Mala Kanan Palace , where Imelda lived , was the highest level, but the floor of the Malacanan Palace is Italian marble , and the ceiling is fixed. It was decorated with chandeliers , and the bathroom had a 100% pure gold sink . In the bedroom, there was a statue of Imelda plated with gold, and Imelda felt satisfied with his golden statue. Of course, almost everything in the building was filled with the best luxury goods. The original thing was remodeled in 1978-1979, and it was said that after democratization, almost all of the Philippines would avoid lodging in this building.

  Malacanang Palace, where Ferdinand Marcos and Imelda Marcos lived

• There is the Coconut Palace , a famous tourist attraction on trips to the Philippines . This building was built because of Imelda's luxury desires. It was built in 1981 using coconut shells and pineapple or banana fiber as construction materials, and was built at a cost of approximately 40 billion won. Pope visits the Philippines It was a building built to win the favor of John Paul II , but upon seeing it, John Paul II decided that the palace was built too extravagantly and refused to stay in the Coconut Palace. Lastly, at the state dinner with the Marcos couple in Malacañang, John Paul II is said to have preached to the Marcos couple, “Do not ignore the needs of the poor.”

  Coconut Palace

• When the Marcos and their husbands visited overseas , they used two small planes as their own, one to carry themselves and their entourage, and the other to carry their own dresses and 200 to 300 suitcases. In addition, he traveled with so many items that it was impossible to figure out what he was carrying.
• When I was in Baguio because I was hot , there was no place to have a party , saying , "Build the party . " The place where it was built was the convention center, which is the largest international conference hall. When the building is built and the building is built, it is a party . It is said to have been carried with sugar . There was also a rumor, but eventually it was revealed. In this way , more than dozens of facilities that can accommodate about 10,000 people .
• He likes parties, so he attended grand banquets, numerous parties, and especially the world's leading fashion shows without missing a single day, and of course, he threw money excitedly every time he went.
• When shopping in New York , 40 attendants assisted Imelda with her shopping, and it is said that the number of clothing bags she carried at that time was over 300. He also set a record of spending more than $10,000 at a department store in one day . Considering that it was the 1980s , $10,000 was a huge amount of money, and even today, for Filipinos, it is equivalent to three years' worth of salary for a new employee with a four-year college degree. In particular, the annual salary of a graduate of a prestigious university in the Philippines is around 3.1 million won, which is about one-eighth of that in Korea.
• He stayed at one of New York's most expensive hotels and ordered five thousand dollars' worth of flowers every day .
• He bought a separate apartment in New York for a party , and spent about $1.5 million in the 1980s on furnishings.
• Imelda's extravagance was probably surprising even in the United States at the time , and her extravagance was reported several times in American newspapers. In particular, one day, Imelda appeared on the front page of an American newspaper, and the title was “Imelda, the dollar-eating starfish .” But Imelda didn't know what it was and just liked it, and ordered 1,500 copies of the newspaper to be distributed to her acquaintances and Filipinos . However, when newspaper reporters asked, “Is this an article criticizing the First Lady?”, they recognized it and hastily canceled the copy.
• I made a $5 million worth of tour in New York .[A]
• The resort was built on a new beach, and Australian sand was carried by plane.[A]
• He also spent $ 120 million to buy buildings in Manhattan .[A]
• Among the episodes that have become legendary, there is the so-called ' Cheese Return ' incident. In the 1970s, Imelda, who was on a Philippine Airlines flight returning from Rome, Italy to Manila, suddenly ordered the captain to return to Rome during the flight. The reason was, absurdly, " because I forgot to buy cheese in Rome ." For reference, the Marcos couple's eldest daughter, Aimi Marcos, went one step further. When Aimi Marcos left her children in the Philippines and traveled to Europe, she used a special Philippine Airlines flight sent by her father to breastfeed her children. Because of this, many Philippine Airlines flights were delayed or canceled, causing many Filipinos living in or traveling in Europe to complain.
• Imelda also has the so-called Beatles scandal. In 1966, the Beatles, who were at the height of their popularity, embarked on a world tour that included stops in West Germany, Japan, and the Philippines. At that time, the Philippines' international status was quite high. Imelda invited the Beatles to her private party when they arrived in the Philippines, but when they were rejected, she cried on TV and said, "I was disappointed." The next day, Imelda's supporters flocked to the hotel and the airport to protest fiercely. The Beatles managed to arrive at the airport, but the escalator was stopped under Imelda's instructions, and the security guards barely escaped from the Philippines without trace. The Beatles later recalled the incident and said, “I felt my life was in danger.” https://news.v.daum.net/v/20181118060046559?f=m
• Imelda loved real estate investing. After purchasing land unconditionally, he used his power to redevelop the site and then sold it at a high price or invested in numerous real estate properties overseas. Cases like this are very common in politically underdeveloped countries. In Korea, there have been several controversies with strong suspicions that land or buildings owned by certain politicians were redeveloped simply because the owners were powerful people (especially in the 1980s) . The peak was the Chun Doo-hwan administration ) This is currently ongoing.
  It is said that Imelda's hidden wealth alone is worth over $10 billion. In Korea , it is an amount of 10 trillion won, and most of the real estate among them was in the United States .
• In 1980, to celebrate her 51st birthday, Imelda Marcos opened the zoo for free for one day and ordered merchants to reduce the prices of daily necessities, in fact all Philippine goods, by 10%. Of course, the merchants took all the discounted prices for themselves. In addition, when Imelda ordered all bus drivers to operate for free, angry drivers refused to drive, causing chaos as many Filipinos were blocked from going to work. ( Excerpt from Kyunghyang Shinmun , July 3, 1980 )
• The Manila International Film Festival was created because a large-scale international film festival like the Cannes Film Festival should be held in the Philippines . Also, a building was needed to host the film festival, so 4,000 people were mobilized to complete the building within four months . Then, because the building was built too quickly, the building collapsed during construction and resulted in the collapse of the Manila Film Center, killing at least 169 people . However, construction went ahead and the film festival was held. However, the film festival soon collapsed.
• While in exile in Hawaii, Imelda Marcos claimed in an interview with Britain 's Daily Mail, "I collected over 3,000 pairs of shoes to promote sales of Philippine products, not because I am a luxury fanatic or a shopping enthusiast." She claimed, "Shoes are one of the Philippines' biggest exports, and all the shoes I owned were Filipino products. As first lady , it is my duty to promote sales of domestic products." (As reported by Donga Ilbo on April 14, 1986.)
• When asked about her extravagant life, Imelda made the absurd remark, "Greed is charity. To distribute to everyone, you must first collect greedily." Of course, if the charity is a charity for one's life, it is not particularly a lie.

• Imelda's journey was made into a rock musical called Here Lies Love in collaboration with Fatboy Slim and David Byrne of Talking Heads and performed on Broadway.
• A disaster occurred when the Beatles unintentionally insulted First Lady Imelda Marcos. When the Beatles' manager Brian Epstein , who made it a rule to avoid public appearances, politely declined an invitation to breakfast at the Presidential Palace on behalf of the Beatles, Imelda expressed her anger on live television, causing outrage among the public. Paul McCartney , who found out about this fact late, mocked Imelda, saying, "It's so shameful that I made a dictator who harassed the people angry." John Lennon, who has a straightforward personality, even said, “I will never go to a country like that mental ward again.” Moreover, as all police officers refused to provide protection under the government's orders, they were forced to escape the Philippines to survive the angry people. In the end, the Beatles were able to escape only after all of their concert profits were taken away by the Philippine authorities. # Due to this incident, the Beatles members were so shocked that they stopped their world tour and focused only on experimental music activities. The album released immediately after the Philippine tour was Sgt., which is considered to have changed the history of rock. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band . For this reason, there is often a joke among Beatles fans that "Imelda Marcos unintentionally completely changed the history of world music."
• 1979 November 3 I once attended as a condolence envoy to the Philippines during the state affairs of former President Park Chung-hee . However, due to flight delays due to weather, he could not attend the funeral ceremony held at the Central Plaza and only attended the burial ceremony held at the National Cemetery in Dongjak-dong, Seoul .