PRESIDENT Marcos of the Philippines made the mistake of his life in 1983 by ordering the daylight assassination of the main opposition leader Begigno Aquino in front of thousands gathered at the airport and outside its perimeter of the airport. It beggars belief that any head of state would stoop so low as to kill a citizen and then claim a Filipino on death row would penetrate thousands of troops after fleeing prison and actually reach the gangway of the aircraft to commit the crime. Not even the best lawyers of the country and beyond would have succeeded in finding a plea for the murderer who was killed on the spot anyway.
With Aquino dead the days of Marcos and his regime were numbered. Sometime before that incredible crime I had interviewed him and sought his permission to meet with and interview his wife Imelda. I met her in the same palace, in one of her famous long dresses as well as her prominent hairdo which appeared in nearly every photograph.
She was gracious and well spoken as she answered every question for our renowned weekly women magazine Sayidaty. No question was barred and she told me that she was going on a state visit to the Kingdom and hoped to see the story of our meeting in Jeddah.
She married Marcos while he was a rising star and remained with him, supported him, and helped him become a presidential candidate and president.
We took several photos and used some of them with the story which as she told me she liked as I also arranged to use it in English and Arabic. The women readers liked it too and some of them cared to let me know that.
When she arrived in Jeddah I found it difficult to reach her because of security and the usual protocol. But luckily I was in the Al-Sawani Department Store in Sharafiya in Jeddah when I saw her but did not dare to approach her amidst all those bodyguards and local security personnel although they did not bother anybody in the shop. When I approached her she recognized and greeted me saying she had read the interview that morning in Arab News and was immensely pleased with it.
She purchased a lot of things but what drew my attention was her passion for frozen food specially cheese which surprised me since as a former beauty queen I thought she would be careful about the intake of fatty foods to maintain her figure.
I followed her fortunes from the downfall of her husband to their exile in Hawaii until his death. Then she returned home where she fought court cases and contested elections to Parliament successfully. Although a staunch fighter she lost the battle to retain her jewelry which had cost her a fortune, or cost the country a fortune. She was accused of extravagant waste of money on countless shoes and bags and expensive clothing plus properties in New York which amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars. It is not quite clear if all the reports of her immense wealth and that of her husband were true but she is not alone in being accused of abusing her favored status as the wife of a head of state whom many people charged with corruption. She is still alive and active with no lack of admirers and followers.
That was my first visit to the Philippines which surely impressed me. Manila was a large city although heavily populated and had a great deal of places to visit, day and night. The city attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors from other parts of the Far East and Japan as there were no restrictions as long as you followed the law. In the eighties the country was peaceful despite the Muslim and communist rebellions raging in the south.
It was a pleasure to tour the city and drive outside it especially to Baguio City, a hill station, which took some hours by car. It was cool and clean and the countryside bracing and beautiful. What happened later on was unfortunate as the rebels doubled their efforts to fight the regime and bring down Marcos. They could not, as Marcos resisted and the army at first stood by him. But following his grave blunder involving the murder of a popular leader like Aquino his days were short especially following a popular upsurge called people’s power. He might have resisted longer as he still had some army support.
When answering questions about the situation there as well as to evaluate the status of Marcos in Philippine history I said that he was unlikely to remain longer in power given two large scale rebellions and economic deterioration that toppled it from a favored position before the World War II and Japanese occupation. He was in fact fortunate to be given asylum in the United States as few other countries would have welcomed him. He settled in Hawaii and died there a few years later.
Present day Philippines owes much to the contributions of the tireless expatriates who have settled in the United States, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. One can find them in Lebanon and Jordan in various capacities ranging from doctors and nurses to skilled workers. Saudi Arabia hosts two million Filipinos nearly as many as there are Indians and only a million fewer than the Egyptians. Their nurses are world famous like the south Indians. They are skilled laborers and good mechanics and drivers. Here they are well liked because they spend some of their money on various assets including home entertainment thereby helping the local economy in their own small way. You could say they are spenders not only savers like some communities which send home more than others since they plan in advance to build or buy homes for eventual settlement.
Farouk Luqman is an eminent journalist based in Jeddah.
