Imelda Marcos won a seat in the House of Representatives, where she also was elected in 1995, and her eldest daughter, Imee, also a former member of Congress, was elected governor in the family’s northern bailiwick, Ilocos Norte Province. Her son, former governor and current Congress member Ferdinand “Bongbong’’ Marcos Jr., probably won his Senate race, according to almost-complete results of Monday’s vote.
With Marcos Jr.’s rise to the Senate, the Marcoses would claim their highest nationally elected post since their patriarch was ousted in a 1986 “people power’’ revolt.
“I thank the Lord, the Ilocanos, the Filipino people for the overwhelming mandate for the Marcoses in spite of all the odds,’’ Imelda Marcos said yesterday. “The Filipino people can be assured of our selfless and endless service and love to all.’’
Marcos is forever remembered for her collection of eye-popping diamonds and 1,220 pairs of shoes discovered in the abandoned presidential palace after Ferdinand Marcos and his family were sent into US exile, ending his 20-year dictatorship and leaving the country’s economy faltering under huge debts.
He died in 1989, and his widow returned to the Philippines in 1991 with her children, twice ran unsuccessfully for president, and won a seat in the House of Representatives in 1995. She retained her supporters despite her reputation for extravagance, including shopping trips to the world’s poshest boutiques and lavish beautification projects in an impoverished nation where a third of about 90 million Filipinos live on $1 a day.
Despite about 900 civil and criminal cases she has faced in Philippine courts since 1991 — ranging from tax evasion to embezzlement and corruption — she has emerged relatively unscathed and has never served prison time. All but a handful of the cases have been dismissed for lack of evidence and a few convictions were overturned on appeal.
