Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos with U.S. President Ronald Reagan
For most of you, the names Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos won’t ring any bells. But from 1965 to 1986, Ferdinand was the President and Imelda the First Lady of the Philippines. In those 21 years, Ferdinand, with Imelda’s help, managed to rack up an astonishing record of abuses common to dictators – human rights violations, assassinations, corruption, embezzlement of public funds – and held onto power through the imposition of martial law, the abolition of the constitution, and the appointment of political cronies, including Imelda, a former beauty queen, to prominent posts.
Finally, in 1986, a people’s coup toppled the Marcos regime and the Marcoses were forced to flee their palace and the country. They were given safe passage by the Reagan Administration to Hawaii. In the palace, Imelda left behind 15 mink coats, 508 gowns, 888 handbags and 1060 pairs of shoes, some say 2700 pairs. It was estimated that the Marcos family was worth $35 billion.
Three years later, still in exile in Hawaii, Ferdinand was dead at 72 of complications from lupus. Imelda wanted Ferdinand to be buried in the Philippines but his body was refused entry. So Imelda kept the body in a refrigerated mausoleum in Oahu, complete with soft music, wheeling him out over the years for a birthday party and an anniversary celebration. (1) The power company soon threatened to suspend power for the costly tomb when thousands of dollars in electric bills went unpaid but, at the last minute, a friend came forward and picked up the tab.
In 2001, twelve years after his death, the Philippine government allowed Ferdinand’s corpse to return to his homeland and Imelda with it. Imelda went to work building a tomb in the national cemetery where Filipino heroes are buried. But fierce opposition broke out and blocked the former president’s burial. Ferdinand’s remains were then temporarily housed at a mansion in Batac, Ilocos Norte Province, in an air conditioned room. Eventually the corpse was moved to their present location in the Marcos family mausoleum in the village cemetery in Batac.
Former First Lady of the Philippines kisses the crystal coffin of her deceased husband, former President Ferdinand Marcos
The once-ruthless dictator is now a shrunken fellow dressed in a barong tagalog and black slacks lying in a glass viewing case inside a refrigerated crypt in a stone room with soft lights and church music. He is on perpetual view. A steady flow of visitors file past him. There his restless corpse will remain, above ground, unless Imelda gets her way and the government relents, according him a government-sponsored burial with full military honors.
A visitor to the mausoleum says that the corpse of Ferdinand Marcos, according to Filipino burial tradition, lies shoeless in the coffin. He swears that Marcos’ face and hands, however, don’t look very natural, even for a corpse. Speculation is that the real corpse is under the glass coffin, and that the figure on display is a dummy. The family claims this is not so, that the corpse looks waxy because it has to be waxed periodically for preservation.
(1) Verdery, Katherine. The Political Lives of Dead Bodies. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000)
Lisa's History Room 
I love starting the day with a good corpse story… thanks!
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I couldn’t resist!!!
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I think that it is not good to preserve the corpse. I think Imelda Marcos is insane.
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Hi, Richard, thanks for visiting. Your comments are appreciated.
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[…] Source:https://lisawallerrogers.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/ferdinand-marcos-restless-corpse/ Bookmark It […]
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Thank you for visiting Lisa’s History Room.
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Interesting.
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is ferdinand marcos’ remains still allowed for public viewing? or just for VIP’s? thanks. havent seen it yet but like to…
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http://www.vistapinas.com/article/marcos-museum-and-mausoleum
Check out this site. The info is not current but it should lead you to discover more.
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Former Indonesian dictator, Soeharto was buried with full military honor, and lead directly by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Ask why?
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This looks like a wax figure. Marcos looked a lot older and more bloated by the time of his death. This looks like a young, and tall? version of Marcos.
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It could well be a wax figure. It could be one of many….
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Ferdinand Marcos doesn’t deserve a heroes burial, maybe a burial befitted a former president. But Imelda Marcos and her followers wanted that corpse unburied for political reasons. She had the way to give the corpse complete rests in Ilocos Norte, his homeprovince If she wants to.
And the Filipino people will never forgive the government burying a gruesome dictator whose abuses had been rampant to be interrred in the National heroes cemetery in Manila.
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Thanks for the insight.
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i do think its time to bury Pres. Marcos and give him all the credit he deserve. yes he is not perfect. but its time for peace i think our country will continue to be divided until we give a final closing to this issue.
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Cathy, Pres. Marcos doesn’t deserve credit but punishment. He was a murderer.
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well i think that’s not how it is. as you see, on the other side of the thread he has established several improvements like infrastructure during his term. maybe, he deserves to be ridiculed and mocked for the wrong doings he had committed but the point is, he was indeed too intelligent to multiply his wealth while taking the power of being a president. I’m not on his side nor against him. Killing several people is somewhat his way for people to take him seriously and gain authority.
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Aby, killing people is not an acceptable way for people to take us seriously. I want you to disabuse yourself of this very unstable notion. This is the way dictators think, not democratically-elected leaders. Am I mad at Ferdinand Marcos? Of course. Am I mad at Josef Stalin, at Hitler, at Idi Amin, at the soldiers in Sudan who are flogging women for wearing trousers, at the Somalis who are ripping teeth out of citizens’ mouths to get the gold and silver? All of these men are being taken seriously and gaining authority. Certainly you don’t believe this is the civilized way of gaining authority? Here in the U.S.A. we put people in jail for murder, not laud them. Have you heard that Hitler made the German trains run on time? A wonderful improvement that balances the scale for causing WWII, all the soldier deaths, 6 million Jews killed, and untold emotional damage? Murdering others is not a wrongdoing that is penalized by ridiculing and mocking. It is a heinous offense and there are judicial penalties, not public scorn, to punish the offender.
Aby, God gave us judgment to use. I do not know why you are not using it here. Marcos was a very bad, very selfish person who killed people who opposed him and grew wealthy off money intended to benefit the citizens of the Philippines. We, in the U.S., do not raise up leaders to adulation who do this. It is the Marcos family who seeks to do this. They are the ones trying to convince you and others that Marcos was wonderful. It is a lie to protect them from truth.
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Filipinos aren’t like Americans, we are very stubborn and undisciplined that’s why we can’t get the progression we desire. And as I’ve said, I’m not being bias.. haha. Anyway, I’ll greatly ponder about everything you said. Thank you.
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Aby, good to hear from you.
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From link to link I hit this site by reading Cory Aquino’s story, how she struggled in politics with peacful means against Marcos’ dictatorship. Specially today in her death announcement.
I am surprised about the long list of people you have there, which I will read of course.
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Pedro, thank you for visiting Lisa’s History Room – and please come back.
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I’ve seen it upclose when I went to Batac for a vacation.Unfortunately, they dont allow cameras inside. It really looked like a wax figure, so creepy for her to keep him there. She should start thinking of giving him a dignified burial, as a President, and a human being rather than trying to insist on giving him a heroes burial, becuase he definitely is NOT a hero.
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I’m fascinated that you’ve seen Marcos’ corpse. Speculation is that it is not his corpse but a wax replica.
Who knows what Imelda is thinking. Thanks for visiting Lisa’s History Room.
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He’s one of the best leaders of the Philippines
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You are referring to Ferdinand Marcos?
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are you actually mad at him? just asking, if you dont mind.
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Marcoses are the greatest leaders that the Philippines ever had.
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Please continue to gather information on the Marcoses.
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In 1992, Mrs. Marcos ran and finished fifth in the seven-way presidential race. Her votes were split between her, with 2,338,294 votes, and Ambassador Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr., a Marcos crony, with 4,116,376 votes. Fidel Ramos, Aquino’s anointed candidate, received 5.3 million and won the election.[20] In 1995, she was elected Congresswoman of Leyte, representing the first district of her home province.
In 1998, she made another bid for the presidency but later backed out of the race to support the candidacy of then Vice President Joseph Ejercito Estrada. Marcos finished 9th among 11 candidates vying for the Philippine government’s top post. During the administration of her friend and ally, President Joseph Estrada, many of the cases filed by the Aquino government were dismissed by Ombudsman Aniano Desierto, owing to technicalities (lapse of the prescriptive period for filing cases). On June 29, 1998, the Sandiganbayan (Philippine anti-corruption court) convicted the Former First Lady of the charge that she had entered into an agreement disadvantageous to the government. On appeal, the Supreme Court reversed the decision and cited Sandiganbayan Justice Francis Gatchitorena for his alleged bias against Mrs. Marcos.[21]
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Good information and a superb follow-up. Thanks for going to the trouble for our readers. Lisa
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hello. i just told my parents about this marcos not being buried yet, because i thought that’s new news for them. but, not. it is for me. my father even told me that someone told him that marcos is still alive. wahaha! just shared. that someone was from his ‘men’ duing his time. felt creepy at that. but i don’t think it’s possible. was there a body that has been viewed by the people? i mean, i real human body. waaah! but that could be true also. idk. haha. sorry.! confused. hmmm, that someone said that imelda didn’t marry even if marcos is declared ‘dead’ coz marcos is not really. waaah.
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Marcos is dead. Worry no more. As for the body, some think the displayed one is made of wax.
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hi, just a disclaimer, i am not a marcos fan. i’m just here to say some things.
although marcos did a lot of awful things in the past, he was still the 10th president of the philippines. presidents should be given special burial rights. indeed, the marcoses are very famous for their greed. but one should know that ferdinand marcos isn’t the only bad guy in this. his advisers and wife share a portion of the crime. marcos HAD good intentions for the country.
its just sad that marcos isn’t buried yet. he deserves his place in a cemetery and not some place where people can view his deteriorating body. someone should make a move on this. be it imelda or government officials who still uses his infamous term as a political gimmick..
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Hi, Pop, thanks for visiting Lisa’s History Room and expressing your sentiments in such a civil manner. It would not be a good thing for the Filipino people to honor a murderer with an honorary burial. I don’t believe in good intentions, only good actions. One is illusion, the other, reality. Marcos did not set out to do good things for the Philippines. He set out to do good things for himself. He maligned the office of the presidency and mocked democracy. Filipinos should always keep their eyes wide open and be honest about the actions of their rulers; otherwise, they will be fooled again and again by fast-talking, money-grubbing, power-grabbing, assassins like Ferdinand and Imelda.
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Hello,
How far have you known Marcos that he deserved such brutal “names?”
How far have you investigated the sentiments of the “strongman?” Have you not heard about him from people who had been so close to him? One can easily pass a judgment, and that is your right as a citizen of a free country. Nonetheless, it is noteworthy to determine the brilliance of his mind fro his love to his country. Look into the on-going developments that surrounds the Philippines nowadays. Are they speaking? These are still the remnants of the strongman’s authentic plan for the country, and many more to come.
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Hello, “Tigger,” I have a simple reply to your comment. I call Ferdinand Marcos a bad man because he did bad things.
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Honestly up to now, I couldn’t believe that the body Imelda displayed in the museum is really Marcos, there are lots of differences. And I remember one of my co-worker from Ilocos told me that Marcos is really not dead yet, they just declared that he is dead coz Marcos don’t want to go to jail…well….no wonder if it is true because he is really a very clever man..who kows?…..
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Hi, Anelyn, Thanks for visiting Lisa’s History Room. F. Marcos died in Honolulu in 1989 from heart, kidney, and lung ailments. He had been suffering with ill health – probably from lupus – for many years prior to his death. There are no facts to suggest that he is still alive, only that his displayed corpse may be waxen and not real.
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i must agree that some of the infos here are facts…
but only considering the mistakes of F.M ……
it’s ridiculous… and it sounds more ridiculous because you’re
not even a Filipino and i’m sure that you only gathered those infos from books …. second-hand experience eh?? c’mon~
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Jessica, perhaps Lisa’s History Room is not the website you seek.
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I wonder, just how many of you who made negative comments, actually studied thoroughily the history of one F. Marcos. Like many world leaders he started off well intentioned and done some great things…………..Then it went downhill, but still kept doing great things.
So which one of you would have done as many great things and lots of bad things, when you get to be the most powerful person in your country? eh which one of you, with the media telling rubbish, fueling those who dont support you, so they can have you lynched? EH
Political aspirations are the most dangerous of all to us HB’s, Obnoxious wealth and power currupts far worse than insanity or drugs.
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Tom, what are these great things Marcos has done? Are there any so great that they wipe out the murders he’s committed for self-preservation of power? Why have you made Marcos of all people your little god?
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I agree with “curius:)”. I also heard the rumor that former president Ferdinand Marcos is still alive and strong through the help of some sort of spiritual group. Also, that he will be appearing to the public again soon. Creepy…
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A whole lot of foreigners as well as political opponents of the Marcos regime charged President Marcos and the First Lady to be “ruthless murderers and thieves” as if they live in the Philippines or experienced life in the Philippines like I did before and during the Martial Law. Just for your information, I was a 2nd grader a year prior to Marshall Law and living in Mindanao where residents have to face 2 enemies—Radical Islamic groups and so-called “Christian Filipinos” who make a living out of being a criminal, President Marcos’ declaration of Martial Law was freedom for us. We don’t have to worry about being inside our homes by sunset. No more thieves attempting to steal our livestocks, or no armed robbery, no carjacks or busjacks, no rapes, no guns, no drugs, smugglings, like we have before Martial Law and after Martial Law. Sure we had “curfew” but it was good for our safety. I left the country when the Marcos’ were still in power. When I came back in 1997, my Dad told me not to sit next to a window because there are lawless individuals who shoot people like they are rats. My Dad told me that the price for “guns for hire” is only @ $100–that is premium price. All of the pre-Martial Law social ills came back like a bad flu. The so-called “democratic govt” we got no longer believe in capital punishment for hardcore criminals but our people are being killed every hour as if we are bunch of chickens. When I returned again in 2007 & 2008, I toured Manila and was so shocked to see the number of homeless children and family in the streets, hungry, uneducated, and unemployed. I visited some of the schools both in Manila and few provinces and there stand still the building we called, “Marcos type” and the quality of education is still poor and no improvements. The local community that I visited, there is still no electric and no running water and the majority of the residents only have 6th grade education. The traffic is worst. Infrastructure is still premitive and this is 30 years since I left. The country’s GDP/GNP is being represented by income earned outside the country by @55%?. Families are now being separated and becoming dysfunctional. My people are embracing foreign social idiologies–especially Western which is bad. Those politicians who were anti-Marcos regime did not do any better job to my people. While touring Manila, each and every cab driver I drove with told me that each and every development I was looking at in and around Metro Manila is attached to an individual who is a politician. There is 1 emprovement I like after 30 years, and that is the fact that there are more products, local & import alike, being made available to those who can afford it. So for you foreigners who have the odacity to judge the Marcoses as Evil leaders, you don’t know what you are talking about. And for the Acquinos and the current govt to deny the president a presidential burial is Evil and hypocritical. Because as you can see and read about it, these people sitting in our govt seats are just as corrupt as the Marcoses.
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A great leader is able to keep a society from disintegrating. If Marcos had to declare martial law, he was the one responsible for the chaos he was trying to contain.
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the Philippines never had a president as good as Marcos, and never will as long as they keep electing actors. Marcos was a real politician. so he was crooked, what politician isnt? even your ‘saint’ cory aquino. the lipunan ng mga bayani deserve him. an Ilocano belongs in Ilocos.
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We don’t accept crookedness in a politician in the U.S. and we certainly wouldn’t consider a crooked politician a good leader.
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[…] meat that is very crunchy), and Empanada, and Pinakbet Pizza ser. A bit of history and trivia, the remains of former President of the Republic of the Philippines for 20 years, Ferdinand Marcos, lie in a house turned into a museum/mausoleum in the hometown of […]
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