What is Imelda Marcos made of? What irrational force made
people love her unconditionally? What made them emulate her and disregard her
questionable deeds?
It's charisma.
Imelda Marcos has always been known to be beautiful. She
also knew (that's why she demanded a reconsideration when she was not awarded
"Miss Manila"). She had natural charm, a mass-attracting magnet, a
way with every person's heart. This was exactly the reason Marcos married her.
To put Imelda Marcos in either of two boxes labelled
"good" and "bad" would be impractical. To judge her is also
presumptuous. To weigh her actions to finally decide our verdict would make us
question our basis for doing so, a basis which will be heavily affected by our
bias and prejudice (But we are natural judges of people, and Imelda is a good
subject, so we will continue).
The Marcos dictatorship is the main cause of the
Philippines’ debt, brought about by massive borrowing of money from other
states to serve Marcos cronies and “Imeldific” wants. Imelda was called an
imitator for building all sorts of medical centres whenever there was one in
other countries, and too extravagant for having thousands of shoes, costly
jewellery, and numbers of clothes she’d only worn once. She was also famous for
burying a lot of construction workers alive in her haste to get the Manila Film
Center built. It was also said that the Marcoses ordered for the assassination
of Benigno Aquino, Jr—an event which eventually sparked their ruin.
But alongside this was the order that Martial Law gave to
the people, the low prices of commodities during their time, the building of
these cultural centres and medical centres that are still in use today. Imelda lowered
the birth rate by promoting contraceptives. She justified her actions of
extravagance and her cultural buildings by saying that she was a natural lover
of beauty, and she wanted the world to see the beauty of Filipino culture and
art. Of course, a staunch hater would not be swayed by such words, but did
Imelda actually believe what she said?
Apparently she did.
Mrs. Imelda Marcos, it seems, has a rather eccentric mind.
When all around her was poverty, strife and dissatisfied citizens, she only
chose to see beauty. She proved her arguments with drawings of overlapping, unrecognizable
figures that according to her, ends in a symbol of peace. When she was stabbed
with a bolo, she only thought “Why a bolo?” When she lived through it, she conjectured that God must have
seen her goodness, and went on enumerating her works of charity. When she was
asked about the dictatorship, she stood up for her husband, firmly attesting
that they did nothing wrong. What made her think like that? Who is she?
Imelda was a child who went through poverty, grew through
hunger and wearing sack dresses. She sold a diamond out of her dead mom’s
necklace whenever they needed money. When Ferdinand noticed her, he married her
after eleven days. She was the help Marcos needed to close off any diplomatic
deal he had, and he enforced strict measures on her eating, her clothes, and
the places she go to. Some even say that Ferdinand only gave in to her whims as
a way of giving back whenever she was sent to Marcos’ associates.
Perhaps her life of poverty produced her peculiar thinking. And her innate charm let her get away with it.
A professor of mine who grew up in a household of two parents who actively
opposed Marcos once sat across Imelda in the Marcoses’ dining table, and he
forgot that he was supposed to hate the person. This was why she still appealed
to the masses regardless of what she has done.
All in all, Imelda wasn’t totally good. She wasn’t
completely evil either. Instead, she was a very curious mixture of charm,
twistedness, and obliviousness. She is an enigma.
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