Inside Philippine politics & beyond

Imelda’s shoes – watch the video

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By Raïssa Robles

Sometime in 1989, the late Betty Go-Belmonte handed me a cassette tape and told me – “see what you can do with this.”

It contained a piece of country music on “Imelda’s Shoes” by the rising comedy duo James “Sandy” Pinkard and Richard Bowden.

A friend of Mrs Belmonte had taped it in the US then brought the tape to Manila.

Mrs. Belmonte was my boss in Philippine Star newspaper where I was the lone investigative reporter. I reported directly to her.

I thought I had lost the tape forever until recently, when my hubby Alan found it in a box of old tapes containing my interviews with various sources.

Alan decided to make a YouTube video of the song, using many of the photographs of  Imelda Marcos’ shoes which I had personally taken while covering the inauguration of a small part of her shoe collection in Marikina City. On that occasion, I asked Mrs Marcos what kind of shoe she was wearing and she readily pulled up her terno and showed me she had on flat heels. I quickly snapped a photo of that and it is in this slide show-video which Alan put together.

The racks of shoes you see were the actual racks that contained her shoes. The racks were in the basement beneath her huge bedroom inside Malacanañg Palace. I saw the racks myself the day after the Marcoses fled. My tour guide was Bea Zobel who had asked me – “Do you want to see Rustan’s?”.   She was referring to the basement where Imelda Marcos’ shoes as well as her bras and underwear were all stored, unused with their price tags on.

When she was First Lady, Mrs Marcos was famous for wearing very high heels.

Mrs Marcos’ shoes have become an iconic  symbol of the excesses of the Marcos dictatorship. She has tried to erase that by saying she only had 200 pairs. Fortunately, the country’s largest auditing firm SGV – which later partnered with Ernst & Young – had audited the shoes she had left in Malacañang Palace. SGV auditors counted 3,000 pairs.

You can read about that more in my earlier piece entitled:

Imelda Marcos claims she has only 200 pairs of shoes. She’s lying.

Meanwhile, here is Pinkard and Bowden’s song that was inspired by her excess:

Comments

  6. I agree on Heroes’ Burials for the Marcoses

    Due to clamor and insistence of Bongbong to let his father be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani and Binay’s selling out of the Martial Law Victims by agreeing, I think we need to give them what they badly want.

    To be able the country to close the Marcos Menace chapter and move on, I actually agree on Heroes’ Burials for the Marcoses.

    As long as all the Marcoses are buried, from Imelda, her daughters and son Bongbong, and their kids!

    I will hail them as heroes for their willing sacrifice and let their corrupt bloodline be forever buried six-feet under!

    If they don’t volunteer, I propose we can still make them heroes by burying all of them alive for the greater good of our Taong Bayan!

    Parekoy
    09/22/2014
    Posting after rereading Alexand Dumas’ Count of Monte Cristo

  7. From celebritynetworth.com; How much is Imelda Marcos worth?

    “Imelda Marcos is a Filipino politician and ambassador who had a peak net worth of $5 billion dollars. Imelda Marcos was born Imelda Remedios Visitacion Trinidad Romualdez in Manila, Philippines in July 1929. She is the widow of former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and makes up half of their conjugal dictatorship. She is well known for her collection of over a thousand pairs of shoes. She started as a singer and model before meeting her husband.” x-x-x

    Imelda has repeatedly announced that she wants her son Bongbong to run for president in 2016 to clean their badly-damaged image as “world-class magnanakaw” kuno.

    • imelda is pushing her son to be president even though son appears reluctant. if imelda wants the presidency so much, she should run as presidentiable, not bully her son into it. I bet, imelda dont have good relation with her daughter in law. insinuating herself and always telling son do this and that like he’s still attached to umbilical cord. one day, son will have courage and grew backbone, free himself of his mother’s influence and tell her to piss off and mind her own business, say no to her and not be dragged around by her like he’s one of her accessories.

      son should tell imelda go and clean her own image, he’ll clean his. he does not have to be president to have clean image. he’s not the one with 3000 pairs of shoes! he’s not the one kissing a bangkay.

  10. {{{ Drum roll }}}

    Will the electoral surveys factor in PNoy’s name as one of the presidentiables?

    {{{ Drum roll }}}

    Will the electoral survey participants pull down Binay’s ratings?

    {{{ Drum roll }}}

    Will the electoral survey participants pull up Cayetano’s ratings?

    {{{ Drum roll }}}

    Will the electoral survey participants pull up or down the skirts or pants of the other presidentiables?

    {{{ Drum roll }}}