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I certainly can appreciate your opinion on Imelda, but I'd like to tell you a little bit about (as Paul Harvey says) the rest of the story...

I was in the Marcos mansion in the metropolitan Manila area in 1987. I was actually in Imelda's famous dressing room where, according to all of the presstitute accounts, over 2,000 pairs of shoes were to be found.

Not true.

Fact is, there were many shoes, maybe 5-600 pair, but not the touted 2,000+ pairs. I even saw light-up disco shoes with lights in the gigantic heels, but I did not see "thousands of pairs of shoes" as hundreds of news whores shrilled. I asked the person I was with about this detail then being screamed about in world headlines. She claimed there was supposed to be that many but they had been removed from the mansion and placed into storage. Even if true, the point is that the presstituted didn't know jack about the facts and only aped what some other jackass claimed in another article.

Same ol' same ol' MSM.

Now, don't get me wrong. I was never a Marcos fan, but I think that there are a few more things to consider here. Yes, Imelda was made a nice target for Saturday Night Live and for the preening leftist harlots in the Western press, but one thing the Marcos regime did, and did well, was to lock up the commies and scumbags where they couldn't work their mischief. Only after Corrazon Aquino (the Aquino family was, I believe, the No.2 landowning family in the P.I.) came into office did the Marxists get let out of prison on 'humanitarian' grounds and they refueled the NPA and promptly began the terror campaigns in the mold of the SE Asian template for rural insurgency.

To a large degree, the NPA has made the Philippines are favorable environment for Abu Sayef to operate. With Clark AFB gone and American military involvement at a low ebb, the weak domestic government needs help combating homegrown terror. Luckily, we are happy to share our experts and toast some bad guys into the bargain.

For my money, damn few third world nations will ever get - or want - real democratic reforms. Instead, the usual roadblocks of crappy primitive cultures, nutbag religions or corrupt political classes will do in the spark of freedom and hope every time. Looked at from that prism, a corrupt and greedy regime like the Marcos, who crush the bad guys, are better than corrupt and greedy "reformer" clowns who will give away the circus to the bad guys almost every time.

I think your history leaves a lot to be desired. The Marcos as a family are still in power, the sons and daughters of Imelda are running for politics and winning in some cases, we are talking Congress and Senator positions.

It is not as simple as right vs. left as you portray it - Commies are bad, dictators are bad.

There is still endemic corruption at all levels of politics and to a lesser extent in business... everyone skims, no one reports their real income on their income taxes, and the Customs folks are probably the most corrupt of all. Some of this corruption should be blamed on Marcos' corrupt influence.

And further, the VFA (visiting forces agreement) came apart under Erap, a Clinton clone, not under Aquino.

Aside: my wife, from the Philippines, was able to make friends with Jesi Mendez, the top hairstylist in the Phils. When she got married, he came to her hotel room and made her up personally. When Aimee Marcos travels, she pays his day rate and all expenses and takes him with her, along with her entourage of 20+ .

Imelda’s famous 30.76 ct. diamond bangle bracelet from Bulgari, NY, with a price tag still on it of one Million U.S. Dollars.

Imelda’s emerald and diamond earrings.The emeralds ( 3 cts. ea.) in these earrings from Van Cleef & Arpels were of such a rare clarity, color and quality that two appraisers from Christie’s could not set a value with out further research. Diamonds droplets 3cts. each.

Estimated at approximately just over 100 carats of yellow (canary) and pinkish diamonds of various shapes, sizes and cuts.

Diamond necklace by Italian designer Buccellati, 93 cts diamonds. Center diamond above US coin is 15 cts.

Imelda’s diamond choker with 15, 5 cts.each Colombian emeralds, 75 total cts. emeralds, and 50 cts total diamonds set in platinum.

Imelda’s Ruby and Diamond bracelet with ten 5 cts. pigeon blood red rubies surrounded by smaller rubies and diamonds in yellow gold. 1.5 inches wide X 8” long