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Preface
The table was filled with precious French perfumes, the face plate was made of gilded face to wash the face, and the body was full of extravagant pearl jewelry.
This is the luxurious life of the former first lady of the Philippines, Imelda.
However, all of her extravagant lives were obtained from the exploitation and corruption of the Filipino people
She is crazy and greedy to collect money from the pockets of the people, the amount of which is as high as tens of billions.
But by the time the people found out her true colors, she had fled to the United States with the money she had embezzled.
Imelda has embezzled so much money, what is her life like now? Has she run out of money?
Lady of the Queen
As the former first lady of the Philippines, Imelda's life is a legend.
The Filipino people love and hate him, and in their eyes, Imelda is simply the embodiment of the devil.
However, this demon had a very poor and miserable childhood.
Imelda was born in 1929 into a wealthy family in Manila, where his father was a lawyer, and not only did he have a good income, but he even had a very respected status.
But born in such a family, Imelda did not live a good life, but lived a life of hunger every day.
This is mainly due to the fact that Imelda's mother was her father's second wife, and before that, her father had several children with his ex-wife.
The children did not like Imelda's mother, so they targeted her at every turn, and the mother often quarreled with her father about it.
When Imelda was born, there were already several children in the family, which led to the fact that resources and father's attention were not equally divided.
The father's disregard, coupled with the bullying and exclusion of other children, made the young Imelda develop a good ability to observe words and feelings.
No matter who it was, she was smiling and looking kind.
Imelda and her mother can only live in a simple room, and Imelda's life is already very unsatisfactory.
However, fate does not seem to favor this family.
When she was 7 years old, Imelda's father's job was affected, and the family's financial situation deteriorated day by day.
In order to pay off the debt, the father even mortgaged the family house.
But even so, the family is still struggling to make ends meet.
In desperation, the family had to move back to their hometown.
As the saying goes, poverty is not a relative, and wealth is not a relative.
Since Imelda moved back to her hometown, few relatives have visited her home.
Because in their opinion, there is no need for the Imelda family, who have no money, to visit at all.
Even though she lived in poverty, Imelda continued to study.
However, God still favored Imelda, and although it did not give her a rich life, it did give her a beautiful face.
With this beautiful look, Imelda participated in a beauty contest at the age of 18 and won the final championship.
After that, she began to shoot some commercials and earn her living expenses.
In 1952, fate favored Imelda again.
At the time, Imelda was working in a library, and her appearance was photographed by a passing reporter and used as a magazine cover.
The magazine was very popular in the Philippines, and Imelda became a celebrity with her beauty.
It was at this time that Imelda's life changed dramatically.
But what a thief
Relying on her beauty, Imelda successfully squeezed into high society, and was invited to parties frequented by some business and political tycoons many times.
At one of the gatherings, Imelda and Marcos, who was still a member of parliament, looked at each other.
Soon, the two entered the palace of marriage.
Since then, Marcos' career has risen all the way.
Behind this, Imelda's advice is naturally indispensable.
In 1965, Marcos was elected the supreme leader of the Philippines, and his wife, Imelda, was naturally on the rise.
There are countless people who want to come and talk to them.
Looking at the jewelry that these people had sent her, Imelda was dazzled by something she had never owned before.
Perhaps because of the poverty she suffered during her childhood, she was so impressed.
So, when confronted with these sparkling jewels, Imelda was quickly lost.
And her husband Marcos is not a good person, he doesn't care about the country, he only cares about his own pleasure.
When there is no money, they go to loot the hard-earned money of the people, and the officials also follow the same example, and the wind of corruption is very serious.
The husband and wife spent a lot of money and lived a very luxurious life.
Imelda, in particular, is said to spend $5 million on every shopping trip, even though it's all about things that aren't very practical.
But Imelda is happy, as if this is the only way to make up for the poverty she experienced in her childhood.
In addition to this, she has a dedicated room for her clothes and shoes.
The sheer number of these items is unimaginable.
For gloves alone, Imelda has more than 2,000 pairs that are not the same.
And the extravagant life of Imelda and her husband is all based on the suffering of the people.
They sucked the blood from the people and left them to live in poverty.
According to statistics, the Marcos family collected a total of $10 billion during this period.
Under this oppression, the Marcos family was eventually ousted.
Seeing this, Imelda immediately packed her things and flew to the United States with a load of money.
But due to the rush of time, Imelda still had a lot to take, including thousands of dresses and accessories.
After coming to the United States, Imelda's life was still as extravagant as ever.
But what people didn't expect was that Imelda, who had left the Philippines, came back in 1990.
She has also run for the presidency of the Philippines twice.
This is really a big surprise.
What is even more surprising is that many poor people in the Philippines are very supportive of Imelda.
This is the case because Imelda has financed many hospitals to keep the poor alive.
I have to say that Imelda is really good at building momentum for herself.
When she was canvassing for her husband's votes, she also personally came to the poor mountain village to offer condolences and even sang to them.
She is a beautiful woman, but she is a thief.
Imelda has means, looks, and is very smart, but her cleverness doesn't have to be on the right path.
epilogue
On November 9, 2018, Imelda was sentenced to six to 11 years in prison on suspicion of embezzlement of up to $658 million.
But for some reason, in 2022, her son Marcos Jr. was elected as the 17th president of the Philippines.
Since then, Imelda has rarely been seen in public.
Resources:
This article was originally published on the Observer Network on November 9, 2018 on "The former first lady of the Philippines embezzled $658 million and was sentenced to up to 77 years".