Imee Marcos trolled.
ANC anchor Karen Davila was never ever heard to have said on record that she would leave the Philippines if a Marcos becomes president. Openly and without hesitancy before a national television audience, Imee was purveyor of fake news.
Gaslighters themselves often get burned.
Imee, on the other hand, had fled the country twice. Soon after settling down in their Hawaii exile after the Marcos family escaped from the Philippines at the height of the People Power revolt in 1986, Imee and then partner Tommy Manotoc fled again to Morocco.
What happened? Let’s piece the story together from verifiable news.
In February 1988, the Associated Press reported that Imelda Marcos attempted to depart for the Philippines from the Honolulu airport. She was distressed about eldest daughter Imee who was said to be ill in Morocco. Imelda made a plea to United States authorities to allow treatment in that country for Imee, who was said to have been bleeding as a result of a stillbirth pregnancy.
But Imee had a grand dilemma: the U.S. had issued a warrant for her arrest “after she failed to appear before a grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia” that was investigating the Marcos corruption. In fact, the grand jury had issued her a subpoena but which she had by then snubbed.
That was the reason for Imee’s exile in Morocco. She evaded the law and was reported to have been living in that African country for a year “with a false passport.” Immigration authorities flatly told Imelda that her daughter would be arrested if she returned to the U.S.
Imelda sobbed before reporters and intimated that Imee had no Philippine passport so she could thus not travel to a European country for medical assistance. But how did Imee get to Morocco? U.S. officials knew. It was their belief that she travelled under a false name with a fake Bolivian passport.
Her youngest son, the current Ilocos Norte Governor Matthew Marcos Manotoc, was in fact born in Morocco. Check his bio.
Her three sons with Manotoc seem to be destined to enjoy a very secure financial future. Their names are listed in the Panama Papers which exposed the offshore investments in their names. Imee’s name is on that list but she has never been transparent about it, based on her statements of assets, liabilities and net worth.
If people flee the Philippines under the presidency of a Marcos, it is because of what they learned from the right, correct and truthful history: that the Marcoses stole big-time and bled the economy dry. Supreme Court jurisprudence coined a term that we use today – and will continue to use for ages to come whether the Marcoses are in power or not — to refer to the loot from this national thievery: ill-gotten wealth. Let me provide the footnote: IMELDA ROMUALDEZ-MARCOS, vs. REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES, G.R. No. 189505 (Supreme Court of the Philippines April 25, 2012).
When people leave to escape from poverty and corrupt politicians, it is a cry for the beloved country. This is degrees better than fleeing to avoid the dragnet of the law.
Ask Imee why has she not travelled to the U.S. since coming back from foreign exile 31 years ago. It is because in that country, she is a fugitive from the law.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
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