Sorry, I simply had to post this since it’s not everyday that I get to be in the same room with Imelda Marcos, the great poker legend Jack Binion (third from right) Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino president Tim Poster (second from left) plus some other Las Vegas moguls I can’t identify for now. Taken at my present homebase Hyatt Manila during a recent company gathering.
These are my officemates/friends (from right) Yayot, Shar & Toni having their pic taken with La Imelda as well.
It’s true what they say: the former First Lady is larger than life. Not even Cory Aquino has earned the popularity she has in the international community for owning those 1,000 or so pairs of shoes. There’s something about her that lights up a room when she enters: probably because she’s tall, makes herself up like a queen (just look at her jewelry in the pic) and her aura (she’s past 70 already) doesn’t reflect the ignominy of having been deposed of the Marcos conjugal dictatorship two decades back.
Anyhoo, am just reading an issue of the StopOver magazine now and couldn’t resist scanning the page for those memorable Imeldific quotes:
On her beauty secret: ” I don’t watch what I eat. I don’t sleep. And I don’t drink enough water. But I try to visualize beautiful things when I meditate.”
On how she feels about the word Imeldific: ” I used to think the word was an affront because it meant vulgar. But I looked up the word vulgar in the dictionary and found it also meant excessively beautiful. Why, that’s not so bad.”
Love her or leave her.
she’s very famous. Disneyland’s It’s a Small world After All ride has an Imelda doll to represent Philippines. plus she’s been mentioned in movies and TV shows everytime someone mentions shoes..hehe.
I first met her right after Sen Aquino died in 1983. At the height of the Marcos unpopularity, I was amazed at her regal stature and ease with everyone around her. She is very charming to everyone. It’s strange how I met her again. At divisoria 168 mall just last December 2005 with a few bodyguards. And again she charmed the crowd.
yes dexie, amazing isn’t it? when i was in europe, the people there only associated the philippines with imelda marcos, as if there was nothing else that could be said about us:grin:
good anecdote noemi. The Grand Dame in 168 Mall. Whoa!:razz:
Oh my! You’re one lucky gal! 😛
Hello
By now you should know how much I love and admire the PHilippines and its people,… but seeing Imelda on your website I do have to respond.
I never cease to be amazed by the popularity that Imelda still has in your country. I repeat : DO NOT UNDERSTAND. Personaly I think she is a disgrace to your people, a disgrace to your country and she should be nailed to the cross to pay for her sins and the sins of her family. Maybe one of the reasons that your country has such a hard time to struggle out of its misery, is because many seem to idolise the very people that are robbing your pockets empty. I visited the Imelda palaces and shrines in Leyte… the shoe museum in Marikina, the private palace in Ilocandia ( now turned into a resort ), and I was amazed to see so much greed and arrogance in one person.
It is easy to look grand at 70, when you have done nothing else than to rob your people and fill your pockets…
Well.. sorry if I have offended anyone in any way… just my opinion, for what it is worth.
she is indeed somebody who can still turn people’s head! i saw her when i was a kid, believe it or not i still have olfactory memories of her, yun bang super bango but not overpowering…i remember that she is so tall…and that she has big feet! i don’t like her, and i hope that she rots in hell for all the things that she has done to the filipino people! sorry ajay, i know that meeting her is an experience, but i have love ones who suffered under the marcos regime, and i myself was (and i think still is) a victim of the marcoses’ greed and corruption.
nag hingi ka pa ng sapatos 😳
i’d say leave her, ju, and the same goes to the rest of the country. leave her and this obsession with celebrity. people like her and the corrupt politicians that rob the country blind deserve to be loathed. this urge, this “simply need to post this” urge comes exactly from that deeply ingrained indiscriminate personality-worship that is the national pastime. surely there are BETTER people that would make for a better photo op, ju – but not her for chrissakes. why?!
Well of course, Imelda elicits the most vehement reactions from people. Apart from what I’ve read in media accounts and history books, I’ve largely suspended my judgment because I was still a babe when they were in power and committed all those abuses, ergo their celebrated excesses didn’t affect me directly. But I dont condemn anyone who thinks the Marcoses were evil-incarnate either. I just find it the height of irony that long after the Marcoses were driven out, the Philippines continues to be ruled by the same political dynasties who betray the public trust and usurp the public funds. We never learn. In fact I think this nation is either stupid or a bunch of masochists.
and i guess with lei’s comment, am part of this celebrity-crazed nation who would get the urge to blog a photo op with imelda (but then again, there was Jack Binion!):grin:
Ajay, I’m also in the same band wagon with Pascal. They should have externinated her,
her family with extreme prejudice and this includes all those corrupt politicians and rich folks sinking the Philippines in poverty like a titanic hitting an iceberg. Sorry nalang if I’m acting like Che Guevara. I’m kinda in the oppressed side and against the rich people back there. And I’m not a pro or against GMA. I don’t want nothing to do with her eventhough I am related to her. But then you look maganda in the group picture. You’ll even pass for being a politician or vip in the group picture :wink:.
Even my friend Rasheed told me when he met Imelda before on a press conference that she has this certain regal aura. My friend was in awe by her presence
Thanks for the compliment Amando. No one can blame you for thinking that way. It’s your right as a Filipino to dream only of what’s best for your countrymen and the country you love. Am surprised to learn that you are related to GMA, does it mean you are from Pampanga?:grin:
Thanks for dropping by Charles. Yes, people always say Mrs. Marcos has that Presence, or should we say, the X-factor:wink:
Ajay, my dad is from Lubao, Pangpanga and my mom is from Bacolod, Negroes Occidental. Unfortunetly they’re not around no more. My dad and GMA’s dad are first cousins. I even have a picture of the family gathering in the sixties in Pangpanga and GMA is still a teeny bopper in the picture.
mas maganda ka pa rin than imelda 😉
i saw imelda from a distance when i was kid. x factor u r right about that. i hav a recent photo w/ FVR here in beijing… i wonder when i should post it…