Imelda rejects White House 'gatecrasher' tag, says one palace is enough

Former First Lady Imelda Marcos denied gatecrashing an important political event at the White House as described in a 1976 diplomatic cable leak which tagged her as “a pest.” “It is not true. If you gate crash in the White House... They will immediately, you know, criticize [you]. And why will I gate crash,” asked the former First Lady, infamous for having more than a thousand pairs of shoes, in a television report aired on GMA 7’s “24 Oras.” “I am already living in the Palace, why will I go to another White House?” she pointed out. A 1976 diplomatic cable declassified and posted by Wikileaks quoted American journalist Jack Anderson wrote: “She seldom notifies them. She simply arrives unannounced. Then, she starts making difficult demands and poking her nose into delicate matters. She's come to be regarded as pest than a guest." Anderson added that Imelda Marcos was a “foreign visitor whom the State Department hates to see." Public dispaly of abuses If the former First Lady had her way, her jewelry, which was seized by the Philippine government in 1986, would be kept in a vault away from the public eye. “But you know my jewelry were some of the best in the world. Many of them are crowns which are historical,” said Marcos. However, she added,“Tila napalitan na [ang mga alahas]. Ninakaw na ang marami… We have 36 cases of Louis Vuitton [full] of jewelry.” The 400 pieces of jewelry, known as the Honolulu Collection and valued at $6 million to $8 million, were kept in the vault at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Presidential Commission on Good Government has earlier said. The PCGG has contemplated exhibiting the jewelry collection as a reminder of the abuses of the Marcos dictatorship. — Rouchelle R. Dinglasan/DVM, GMA News