Supreme Court Orders Return Of Mansion To Marcoses

The Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed a lower court's ruling that voided a government order sequestering a Marcos rest-house in Olot, Tolosa in Leyte province.


The 17-room mansion was among the properties seized by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) in 1987. The commission, formed by the late President Corazon Aquino, was tasked to recover the ill-gotten wealth of the family of late President Ferdinand Marcos.

Voting unanimously, the high court upheld the Sandiganbayan's 2002 decision that ordered the PCGG to return the property to the dictator's wife, former First Lady and incumbent Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos.

The SC lent credence to the Sandiganbayan's findings that the PCGG failed to provide prima facie evidence that would establish, just as a preliminary determination, the mansion was indeed ill-gotten.

The SC noted that the PCGG keeps a two-commissioner rule to assure the existence of a prima facie case that the money or properties confiscated by PCGG from the Marcoses are indeed ill-gotten.

In 2002, the anti-graft court held as invalid the PCGG's seizure order which was issued by PCGG lawyers and not by any PCGG commissioner.

“Here, it is clear that the PCGG did not make a prior determination of the existence of a prima facie case that would warrant the sequestration of the Olot Resthouse," the high court pointed out.

“Nor did the Republic demonstrate that the two PCGG representatives were given the quasi-judicial authority to receive and consider evidence that would warrant such a prima facie finding," it added.

source: Yahoo News

Imelda Marcos Shoe Collection Survived Ondoy

During the destruction of typhoon Ondoy, a museum guard’s acting quickly saved part of former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos’s infamous shoe collection when huge floods devastated the nation’s capital.

In a report from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the staffs said that they moved the 200-pair of shoes displayed to the second floor before the flood waters started to enter into the ground floor of the Marikina Shoe Museum.

“A guard was able to take most of the pairs to the second floor. We will account for them in due time, but our priority right now is still the affected families,” it cited Mayor Marides Fernando of Marikina City during the interview.

Marikina City is the Philippines’ shoe production capital, was among the worst hit areas when Tropical Storm Ondoy (Ketsana) plunged record rains in and around Manila on Sept. 26, killing almost 300 people and thousands homeless.

Marcos’s shoe collection has become one of the most infamous symbols of the life of lavishness Imelda Marcos enjoyed during the 20-year reign of her husband, Ferdinand Marcos.

Picture Credits : Ramon Lopez at Flickr - visit ramonlopez for more photos.

Imelda Marcos as one of Newsweek's Greediest

Former First Lady Imelda Marcos is included in Newsweeks' Greediest Of All Time together with Marcus Licinius Crassus, Genghis Khan, Pope Sixtus IV, William Vanderbilt, Willam Tweed, Empress Dowager Cixi, Charles Ponzi, Ivan Boesky, Dennis Kozlowski, and Bernard Madoff.

“[Imelda Marcos] saw it as her duty to provide ‘some kind of light, a star’ for the impoverished Filipino people over whom her husband presided," the Newsweek article wrote of the wife of the late Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos.

“She took $5 million shopping sprees to New York and Rome, reportedly owned the world’s largest collection of gems and 3,000 pairs of shoes," it further read.

In an television interview from GMA7, Imelda Marcos defend herself by stating

I plead guilty. For me, greedy is giving. I was first lady for 20 years, you have to be greedy first to give to all. It is natural. The only things we keep in life are those we give away.

Well, so much so for her defense. You can view the interview here.

IMHO: Perhaps Ms. Imelda was planning to build a museum for the shoes that she had acquired. Sadly to say that Filipinos was just able to glance at her "treasures" after the Marcos Regime was ousted.

In fairness to Ms. Imelda, I think that we need also to give credit to the goodness that she had done for the country (although the bad outweighs the good) like... hmmm let me think and try to get back on that. :-)

By the way here is a youtube video showing the shoes of Imelda Marcos.
Imelda Marcos Shoes