Imelda Marcos - Exile (1986–1991)

Exile (1986–1991)

On February 25, 1986, Ferdinand Marcos and his family fled to Hawaii (via Guam) after his regime was toppled by the four-day People Power Revolution at EDSA. Also, the place where her shoes and jewelry were being kept was destroyed, the contents stolen. Even a painting of Imelda was destroyed outside the Malacañan Palace. Marcos was succeeded by Corazon C. Aquino, widow of Benigno S. Aquino, Jr., Marcos' foremost political opponent, who was assassinated at the Manila International Airport during his return to the Philippines in 1983 after years of political exile. It was widely assumed that Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos were involved in the assassination, which ignited the People Power Revolution of 1986. Upon assuming office, President Aquino issued Executive Order No. 1, creating the Presidential Commission on Good Government to investigate and sequester the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses. President Aquino abolished the Batasang Pambansa (Philippine Parliament) and the Ministry of Human Settlements, both creations of Marcos, and established in 1987 a modified version of the Philippines' original 1935 constitution, which had been abolished in 1972 by Marcos. After the Marcos family fled Malacañan Palace, Marcos was found to have left behind 15 mink coats, 508 gowns, 1,000 handbags and 1,060 pairs of shoes. The exact number of shoes varies between accounts; estimates of up to 7500 pairs of shoes have been published, but Time later reported that the final tally was 1,060. In 1992, Marcos claimed that her fortune came from Yamashita's Gold. In February 2006, Marcos insisted that her husband had acquired his wealth legitimately as a gold trader. By the late 1950s, she claimed, he had amassed a personal fortune 7,500 tons of gold, and after gold prices climbed in the 1970s, the Marcos family was worth about $35 billion. However, the Bureau of Internal Revenue has no record of the Marcos family declaring or paying taxes on these assets, and the source of their wealth remains open to investigation.

Ousted President Marcos died in exile on September 28, 1989. President Aquino refused to permit the repatriation of his remains for national-security reasons. The Supreme Court upheld the decision of the government in Marcos vs. Manglapus. In 1991, Marcos was allowed to return home.

Marcos was the first wife of a foreign head of state to stand trial in an American court. In 1990, she was acquitted of racketeering and fraud charges, alongside co-defendant Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian former billionaire and arms dealer. The "theatrical" trial involved many celebrities: Marcos and Khashoggi were represented by trial lawyer Gerry Spence; Marcos' $5-million-dollar bail was posted by tobacco heiress, Doris Duke, who befriended her while they both lived in Hawaii; and actor George Hamilton was a star witness for the defense.