Imelda Marcos
Yes, she is the same Imelda, the widow of the Philippine despot Marcos, who has gained worldwide notoriety for her extravagant collections of jewelries and paintings, including her scandalous accumulation of over 3000 pair of shoes.
And, yes, she is the same Imelda who is back in power as a member of the House of Representatives, thanks to our short memory and equally notorious indulgent attitude in embracing those who, once upon a time, has caused us a lot of misery.
But while Imelda’s expensive collection of jewelries are now kept inside the vault at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the anti-graft court has now given the orders to seize some of her pricy paintings that are still out there.
At the behest of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), the places to be searched, aside from Imelda’s office in Congress, are all her known residences in Manila and Ilocos Norte.
In a three-page court order, the sheriff’s office was authorized to go after eight paintings that are named here, as follows: the Madonna and Child by Michelangelo Buonarroti, Femme Couchee VI (Reclining Woman VI) by Picasso, Portrait of the Marqueza de Sta. Cruz by De Goya, and Still Life with Idol by Gauguin, also to be seized for safekeeping are the LaBaignade Au Grand Temps by Pierre Bonnard, Vase of Chrysanthemums by Bernard Buffet, Jardin de Kew pres de la Serre 1892 by Camille Pisarro, and L’Aube by Joan Miro.
I just hope that what the authorities can repossess, if ever, are still the authentic and not the reproduction or bogus ones, because they are really up against a smart and devious family who to this day still claims they have not wronged the Filipinos, much less plundered the country to own the paintings.
My only fear really, is that, like the recovered jewelries, would the paintings, too, if indeed originals, will be witnessed by Filipinos to be auctioned and its proceeds given to the victims of the brutal Marcos regime?
Could this vision, opportunity and benefit become a reality for the poor victims while the Marcos family is back in political power and glory?
Presumably it is only President Aquino who could make this happen – exercising the utmost of his political will. And he has two years left yet to do it.
Otherwise, all these seizures of extravagant jewelries and paintings placed under judicial custody are exercises in futility, for more likely than not, in later years, it will end up once more in one of the despot’s heirs for they will be fighting tooth and nail to prevent it from getting disposed.
To put it more bluntly, the act of recovering the extravagant collections is simply to console the fools in us (consuelo de bobo).
(Recommending you to open this link for some ‘fruits of labor’ by the PCGG in their quest to recover some of the Marcos ill-gotten wealth: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/379847/news/specialreports/infographic-the-hunt-for-the-marcos-ill-gotten-wealth).
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