Imelda Marcos warns over ‘fake’ jewels

Manila: Former First Lady Imelda Marcos warned the government might be exhibiting jewellery that was substituted by those who allegedly stole her “real” collection when her family abandoned the presidential palace, following a people-backed military mutiny in 1986, a local paper said.

“My jewellery was some of the best (but) they took 38 suitcases of Louis Vuitton (bags that contained my real jewellery in 1986),” Marcos, 83, told the Star while campaigning for a seat at the lower house of congress, ahead of the May 13 elections.

“What they (in government) have (now) are not only fake pieces. They also stole some of the (real) jewellery (that I left behind at Malacanang in 1986),” Marcos said.

She did not respond when asked who took her real gems at the presidential palace, but the Star quoted her aide as saying that supporters and close friends of the late former President Corazon Aquino were “responsible for the (allegedly) missing jewels”.

Earlier, the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) revealed plans to exhibit the collection of Marcos jewellery before the end of the year.

The gems have been categorised into three sections: those that were taken from Malacañang Palace, the Malacanang collection; those that were taken by immigration authorities from Marcos in Hawaii in February 1986, the Hawaii collection; and those that were confiscated from her Greek friend, Demetriou Roumeliotes who tried to bring out her jewellery on board a flight to Hong Kong in March 1986, the Roumeliotes collection.

In 2003, appraisers valued the Malacanang collection at $125,000 to $175,000; the Hawaii collection, $1.5 to $2 million: the Roumeliotes collection, S4.7 to $6.4 million.

The surviving members of the former First family were allowed to return to the Philippines in 1990.

All of them, except the youngest daughter Irene, were elected to government posts.