BATAC , May 9 — The white van’s sidedoor slides open, a motorised seat pivots and former Philippines first lady Imelda Marcos is lowered to the ground like a modern-day Liberace of politics.
Practically speaking, she has come to vote in the Philippines’ latest six-yearly presidential election.The heir is her 64-year-old son, Ferdinand Marcos Junior, the frontrunner in this year’s race.His blink-and-you-miss it entrance caused few cheers, despite this being the Marcos’s stronghold.His appearance is unremarkable but for a Beatles-style thick black flop of hair — an irony given Imelda’s falling out with the Fab Four left them vowing never to return to the Philippines.
She then signals to an aide, who signals to another aide, who signals a third aide to provide a pack of Kleenex to dab her brow.Despite a decades-long effort to claw back some of Marcos’s “ill-gotten” billions there are still conspicuous signs of fabulous wealth. The most dangerous place on Earth may be between Imelda Marcos and a camera, and any onlooker trapped in that intermundium is quickly shooed aside.He is perhaps around the same age as Imelda, but the years have been less kind.