Chapter 4 The Philippines

Abstract

In his March 1986 article in Newsweek, Russell Watson exposed “Queen Imelda” Marcos's life of indulgence as the Philippines' First Lady in the opening paragraph:Three thousand pairs of shoes, size eight and a half. Five shelves of unused Gucci handbags, still stuffed with paper, price tags still attached. Five hundred bras, mostly black, and a trunk full of girdles, 40 and 42 inches around the hips. Huge bottles of perfume, vats of Christian Dior wrinkle cream, a walk-in-safe littered with dozens of empty jewelry cases. When the palace of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos was opened to the public as a museum last week, foreigners and Filipinos alike gawked at what the former First Lady had left behind. “It was the worst case of conspicuous consumption I have ever seen,” said an American visitor, Rep. Stephen Solarz. “Compared to her, Marie Antoinette was a bag lady.” (Watson, 1986, p. 14)

Citation

Quah, J.S.T. (2011), "Chapter 4 The Philippines", Quah, J.S.T. (Ed.) Curbing Corruption in Asian Countries: An Impossible Dream? (Research in Public Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 20), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 111-152. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0732-1317(2011)0000020011