Imelda Marcos at 77
In 1986, the Marcos regime of the Philippines was overthrown in a people’s revolt and the dictator Ferdinand and wife Imelda Marcos were forced to flee the Malacañang Palace. (See last post.) Imelda fled wearing her espadrilles. Because she was flying to Hawaii in an American helicopter provided by U.S. President Reagan and paid with American tax dollars, she was unable to take her enormous wardrobe. In the palace closet, she left behind between 2 and 3 thousand shoes. Imelda Marcos was the First Lady of the Philippines, a country deep in poverty. The outrage was immediate and the news went international. President Marcos’ successor, Corazon Aquino, ordered many of Mrs Marcos’ shoes to be put on display as a demonstration of her extravagance.
In 1988, the band Big Audio Dynamite wrote this song about Imelda Marcos and her enormous collection of shoes. Click below to hear:
2000 ShoesArtist: Big Audio Dynamite
Phillipine star greedy girl
Took the money to buy the world
First a little then the lot
Others’ needs were soon forgot
Heard you like a love song
This here one is just for you
In keeping with your taste we hope
It’s called 2000 shoesNever had a conscience
Or any moral views
Even any kind of taste
Just 2000 shoes
If I had the world to sell
Could strike a deal with you
I know you haven’t got the cash
Just 2000 shoesCatwalk at the embassy
Supplied by human rights
Qadahafi and George Hamilton
Mao Tse Tung and disco lightsNever had a conscience
Or any moral views
Even any kind of taste
Just 2000 shoes
If I had the world to sell
Could strike a deal with you
I know you haven’t got the cash
Just 2000 shoes
2000 shoesPhillipine star greedy girl
Took the money to buy the world
First a little then the lot
Others’ need were soon forgot
Heard you like a love song
This here one is just for you
In keeping with your taste we hope
It’s called 2000 shoesSo here it is Imelda
Sorry it’s the blues
Would have done it different
If I were in your shoesNever had a consience
Or any moral views
Even any kind of taste
Just 2000 shoes
If I had the world to sell
Could strike a deal with you
I know you haven’t got the cash
Just 2000 shoes
2000 shoes
The world's best-known shoe collector, former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos, has opened a museum in which most of the exhibits are her own footwear.
But that wasn’t the end of the story. In 2001, Imelda returned to Manila in the Philippines, reentered politics (although still facing corruption charges for looting the national coffers for over 20 years), and opened a shoe museum to house some of her shoe collection. “They went into my closets looking for skeletons, but thank God, all they found were shoes, beautiful shoes,” a smiling Mrs. Marcos said that year, wearing a pair of locally made silver shoes for the day. The exhibits include shoes made by such world-famous names as Ferragamo, Givenchy, Chanel and Christian Dior, all size eight-and-a-half.
“More than anything, this museum will symbolise the spirit and culture of the Filipino people. Filipinos don’t wallow in what is miserable and ugly. They recycle the bad into things of beauty,” she said.
Imelda Marcos is a classic example of a person who, when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade.
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Lisa's History Room 
World class poem you got there. Heh.
It’s just that sad to see that one Filipina had 2000 shoes (and counting), while 2000 families live each day without even a decent pair of slippers.
I hope helping wont be that hard to do in one lifetime.
Famous Filipinos
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Hi, Coy. Imelda is above the rules. Power is what it’s all about to her. I’ve read enough about her “changes” to the Philippines under her husband’s dictatorship to realize they were superficially helpful at best. Didn’t she paint Manila – all of Manila – in preparation for the Miss Universe (or Miss World) pageant being staged there?!!!
Thanks for visiting and commenting. Please come back. I’ve just gotten started with the Imelda posts.
Best, Lisa
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2000 shoes is possible here in Philippines. Just a local actress can have more than 2000 shoes
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And here in the U.S. I imagine!
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god save the queen imelda!
You cannot destroy beauty thru ugliness.
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I think she is greedy & ugly.
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She appreciates beauty like no others…
She made the Philippines a beautiful country.
She is the most beautiful Filipina of all time.
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She is pretty on the outside, but ugly on the inside.
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Queen Imelda forever!~~~ =)
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Gosh! I cant believe there are people still defending her…she stole billions from her country…what right did she have to take all the money??? it wasn’t her (or her husband) it was the tax payers…
and how hypocrit the US, fighting a dictator in Iraq but giving refuge to another one…
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Thank you, thank you, Marcos. I have been feeling discouraged because I have been receiving such laudatory comments about the evil Marcoses. And, yes, what was Pres. Ronald Reagan thinking, protecting Ferdinand Marcos? Esp. after Ninoy Aquino, living in US exile, returned to the Philippines during Marcos’ reign and was promptly assassinated getting off the airplane in Manila?
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well I understand some people like the marcos regime that was the only time the phillipino paso got close to the dollar. Marcos built most fo the infrastructure. And it has not been repaired since. Manila was really rundown. like 2 percent of the population owns 90 percent of the land. The marcos did more for thier people than the last several goverments. No they were by far not perfect but i can understand why they are still missed.
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Hi, Clint, whatever postive changes were made during the Marcos regime are vastly overshadowed by the human injustices. Hitler got high marks for getting the German trains to run on time – but who cares about such ridiculous things like train schedules when human lives were treated like garbage?
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Imelda prepared the manila for the miss universe pageant but did you know that she wanted to make a building so badly for the pageant in a short period of time that she ordered to build one…the building collapse leaving many workers inside…she decided to cover up the building by a land (or soil)…making some survivors inside that building be buried alive…some say that the building is now hunted by the spirits of the innocent Filipinos who were mass murdered by Imelda…
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WOW! I knew that she spent a lot of money preparing Manila for the pageant but I didn’t know the part about the building scandal. I will definitely follow up on this.
Thanks for the info and the lead. Lisa
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yeah. the infrastructure is called ” the manila film center, where many Filipino workers died because of the collapse that happened. now it’s haunted i remember whenever we pass that building it has this eerie feeling that even when you’re outside you can tell that it has this creepy vibe. i adore mrs. marcos for her beauty and for her passion for shoes because i’m also a girl but im not buying 2000 pair of shoes from tax payers money or some dirty money that i heard they stole from the government. she’s a woman of beauty and grace. i think she’s a smart woman. she can do better than that.
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Imelda Marcos is as smart as a fox. Beware. Anybody can shop.
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be rational and dignified writer.. your pen and paper is to in-light people not to destroy people..
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I will determine the purpose of my blog.
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well, well, now i realized why philippines still not moving and changing, because of it’s people, no cooperation and discipline. Can’t even love there own and still adding up some messy stuff to other people who does not know the real truth. Marcos was the only who made us experienced to be in a real beautiful country not knowing that there are some filipinos don’t appreciate. Well, to tell you, Marcos’s reason why he had to run the country in a rude way because filipinos don’t understand anything because of locking of cooperation. No discipline at all. Like a parents, if a child can’t make him stop from crying, u going to spank her and shout at her to make him understand and be scared to know the meaning of disciplinary.
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I’m not clear on what you are trying to say.
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I think the poem is full of hate…. and whats wrong with the shoes? we like nice things its our human nature….if you can afford to buy why not? Do you think the first lady of the Philippines would wear a rug to visit the leader of the world…where ever you go you bring the piece of your homeland… it reflects your upringing and culture… well Imelda R. Marcos represented the philippines gracefully and with dignity
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Imelda Marcos’ wealth that allowed her to accumulate the excessive shoe collection came from taking money from the Filipino government. That’s not grace and that’s not dignity. Those are propaganda terms she uses to keep you from taking a closer look at her. She has sure pulled the rug over your eyes!
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Lisa, I hope you know that Imelda Marcos came from a very rich family even before she became first Lady of the Philippines. Until now, her family, the Romualdez clan, still is stinking rich not from corruption but from legitimate businesses and tracks of farmland they acquired from way back their Spanish ancestors. Her family and even Marcos’ clan is still very widely respected and admired in the Philippines in aspects of education, entrepreneurship, charity and politics. No one has the right to condemn a queen for being born queen. If you research well and get legitimate datas, Marcos Regime is the best the Philippines has ever got for an administration.
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I disagree that she has 2000 pairs of shoes she really has 3600 pairs of shoes.
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the most of her shoes she received where gifts from designers such as some of her jewelry i dont understand why evrybody is making a big issue. did you had the chance to count the shoes of ur fromer first lady or your present.
think about that.
if you would meet her personally belive me you’ll change your mind . Imelda Marcos is beautiful inside and out!
but still… nothing against your opinion… peace
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I’m certainly not defending marco’s record only putting it in perspective as to why many philipinos liked them. Marcos was not a very good guy but don’t you think comparing him to Hitler is a little off? He didn’t have death camps or practice genocide. It was mussolini who made the trains run on time btw:). Compare the marcos more closely with the perons. The philipinos have never known an uncorrupt goverment in most peoples living memory. The way I got it from people when i visited over there was that marcos had some good and bad and the good they remember more than the bad.
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Dude, shut up. You’re an idiot who absolutely doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Marcos as well as his family and cronies were just as awful as Hitler during his regime. Hundreds of thousands of human rights violations in 14 years.
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Frank, you are the one who doesn’t know what you’re talking about. Succeeding presidents of the Phil are more worse that FM. He may had wrongdoings but still he is so far the greatest president the Philippines had. Why blame on him everything?
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Lisa, I feel for you and know how discouraging it may look like basing from all the responses you’re getting when you report about the Marcoses. But continue to make those reports about these lunatics and the injustice and indignity the husband-and-wife team brought to the Philippines. Those who are against them are more than you think. Now, in the Philippines, Imelda and her evil cronies are making moves to bury Ferdinand at the Heroes’ Cemetery (similar to Arlington National Cemetery in the U.S.). Yes, they are that incorrigible, to put it mildly. This shall not come to pass, not on our watch. You are doing a very good thing. Thank you and keep up the good work. – a reader from Manila, Philippines.
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Ria, you wouldn’t believe how many people out there still support the Marcoses. I am stunned by some of the mail I’ve rec’d. Thanks for the kudos. Keep coming back –
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the filipino’s in this generation doesn’t fully understand the damage what the marcos’did to the country bc they weren’t there to witness the whole thing. It’s totally okay to spend money on shoes or any kind of leisures you want but the fact that the money was from the people who worked hard for it is NOT acceptable in case or situation. I believe that people get so blinded by wealth and power that they are willing to see pass through what is standing right in front of them. They were fully aware that the country was struggling yet they looked they other wy bc they can, and at that moment they have to the power. Most of those shoes weren’t given to her and I don’t think anyone would just you jewels just bc you’re the first lady of some country. I simply cannot support a thief, a liar and a fraud. For someone who tries to hide some of the government money to a swiss bank acc is not something I want for my country. Yes, she definitely made a name for herself…. bu most of it are bad.
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[…] I grew up in Seattle and while I know all the ins and outs of my community, local politics, and the history of the struggle here, before I found Pin@y I knew little about my own identity as a second generation Filipina-American. I’m embarrassed to say I had only vaguely heard of the Marcos regime and Imelda’s notorious shoe collection. […]
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[…] Imelda Marcos: 2000 Shoes « Lisa’s History Room Filed in Uncategorized « Jocelyn marquez […]
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I have to apologize in behalf of my fellow Filipino morons. They forgive and forget very easily.
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if you notice the young generation doesn’t know the Philippine history, it never been taught in college either, or it depended on the teacher what political side they are on.
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