COMMENT This Mother’s Day, one mother deserves to be mentioned as well.

It is not because she is a role model, but there are lots of lessons one can learn from the way she had carried herself - and the kind of legacy that she has left behind for her four children and the nation.

It is how the Lady of Materialism has brought the downfall of her husband and herself, despite her husband being able to survive for 20 years using iron rule.

The ‘Steel Butterfly’, when she was interviewed, said: “When they went through my closets looking for skeletons, all they found were shoes.”

In total, she had collected over three thousand pairs of designer shoes. No small amount of money would have been spent in this lavish collection for the first lady of an impoverished Third World Nation. These fancy shoes later became a symbol of the couple’s flamboyant spending habits and immense wealth.

Everybody has heard of Imelda Marcos, who was the first lady of the Philippines for two decades throughout the reign of her husband, then-president Ferdinand Marcos ( photo ) from 1965 to 1986. While her husband was president, Imelda had held several government positions including being the governor of the Metro Manila area and was later appointed the human settlements minister.

In her own capacity as the first lady of the Philippines, Imelda had also met a number of world leaders including then-US president Lyndon B Johnson, Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Because she had the poise and the beauty, she was also placed on the same pedestal as another famous first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy.

But, today at 85, although she may be worth US$5 billion and is named the richest woman in the Philippines (and the third richest billionaire after Henry Sy and Lucio Tan), she is now staring into the eyes of the angel of death like any other old ladies.

What amazes me is how she had explained the source of her wealth. Sounding like Ali Baba, the character from ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’, Imelda claimed that her fortune came from Yamashita’s Gold, which was allegedly war loot by the Japanese forces during World War II, and hidden in caves, tunnels and underground complexes in the Philippines.

Imelda’s legacy is not one that can be compared to the stature of Mother Teresa or even Hillary Clinton and the simple but elegant Michelle Obama. Even her ancestral home in Tacloban, which also served as a museum, was recently destroyed by Typhoon Yoland.

Celebrity status

We read about Imelda’s rise to celebrity as simply meteoric. After living in Manila for a few years, she met a young politician on the rise, and within only 11 days after meeting each other, Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos tied the knot.

The couple then threw themselves an elaborate bash for friends and family a month later. It was probably the ‘Wedding of the 20th Century’.

Although coming from a poor family background, where she lost her mother to pneumonia and her father’s law firm fizzled out around the same time, Imelda had to sell off a small diamond from her mother’s necklace in order to feed the family.

Eventually, when her husband became the president of the Philippines, Imelda ( photo ) hardly thought about many Filipinos who were living in poverty. She became known as the shopping queen, who used to travel to New York, Paris and London, to buy expensive fashions, high-end jewellery and other luxury items.

Their lives in comfort at the Malacañang Palace was all at the expense of the Filipino people, where the Marcos family and their cronies were believed to have siphoned off billions from the country’s coffers. Despite this, the Marcos regime remained in power, but not for long.

The Marcos regime was known for its oppressive rule. Martial law was declared in 1972, the regime became brutal and the president himself became a dictator in his style of government. This was what finally caused the collapse of the Marcos regime, and forced the first couple out of office and into exile.

In 1983, the president was accused of assassinating the Opposition leader, Benigno Aquino, Jr. Three years later, when the Marcos family was accused of manipulating the election results in their favour, Aquino’s widow, Corazon, finally came into power after the people went on the streets in what was popularly known as the People’s Power movement.

This is a clear warning from the Bible: “No one can be established through wickedness, but the righteous cannot be uprooted.” (Proverbs 12:3).

The moral of the story

Although Imelda’s wealth could run into US$10 billion or more during the first couple’s time in power, today, on Mother’s Day, we have to remember that being a mother, what is important is our own children.

It is not materialism that will make you feel blessed but it is when your children will someday call you “blessed”. It is not the material wealth that you can pass on to them, but all the good moral and spiritual values that will become a good legacy for generations to come.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.