Dream Fulfilled For Imelda Marcos As Family Reclaims Presidency

Manila, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th May, 2022 ) :Decades after fleeing the Philippines with bags and boxes stuffed with jewels, gold and cash, former first lady Imelda Marcos has achieved her ultimate ambition: her son winning the presidency.

The frail but flamboyant 92-year-old matriarch has been the driving force in the family's comeback from exile to the peak of power in the May 9 polls.

President-elect Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos has described his mother as "the supreme politician in the family", one who wields a "very big influence".

Known for her lavish spending, Imelda symbolises the greed of her husband Ferdinand Marcos's dictatorship, which ended in 1986 after a popular revolt ousted him.

An estimated $10 billion was stolen from state coffers over the course of his brutal and corrupt 20-year rule that left the country impoverished.

During that time, Imelda collected diamonds, art masterpieces and thousands of shoes, insisting her taste for luxury was meant to inspire her desperately poor countrymen and women.

"My role as first lady was... to set the standard, because mass follows class," she told AFP in a 2009 interview from her penthouse apartment in one of Manila's most expensive high-rises.

Bongbong's victory marks the completion of her mission to reclaim the presidency and revive the family brand, analysts and observers said.

"I'm sure she's feeling gratification," said Andres Bautista, who once led a government agency tasked with tracking down the Marcoses' ill-gotten wealth.

"What she wanted to happen was for Marcos Jr. to rehabilitate the Marcos name and reclaim the throne that Marcos Sr. occupied -- and it's happening."