The third of the trilogy

“The Verdict” is the third book that I wrote on Imelda Marcos. It will be launched today, May 21, at the National Book Store of Glorietta I in Makati from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. I will be present to autograph the book.

I was the Cory Aquino government’s spokesperson at the trial in New York. The book is not just about Imelda. It is also how we developed a culture of impunity that pervades in our country today.

At the end of her trial I made a short statement “Imelda may have won the battle but we won the war.” She may have been acquitted but she was not innocent. One day a young author will pick up the evidences and testimonies and write the book about a crucial period of our history.

Here are excerpts from different chapters of the book.

The Lopezes

A close friend of the old man (Don Eugenio Lopez Sr.) narrates how the old man introduced Imelda to be profligate: “The old man boasted he courted and showered her with gifts mainly jewelry but also a large amount of Meralco Securities shares and thought she would always be submissive to him... He did not think then that he would come to regret his generosity.”

Soon, the close political partnership began to fall apart in the scramble for booty between the Marcoses and Lopezes. From partners they became competitors for the resources and wealth that come from government power.

The thrust of Lopez-owned media was to cast the growing animosity between the Marcoses and Lopezes as a fight between the old rich and the new rich. The Marcoses, being arriviste, could only trace their wealth to government corruption... Upon closer look, however, they came from the same piece of cloth – Marcos used political power to amass wealth while the Lopezes used their wealth to secure political power. This was the vicious cycle of politics that would take its toll on the country’s nation-building.

By the time Marcos was president, being in government was all about winning elections and getting rich... The Lopezes were no different... Their corruption was of a different kind but equally harmful... They were just as willing to subvert political institutions and regulatory bodies for the sake of their businesses. The Marcos-Lopez story is about how political allies turned into bitter enemies over the spoils of political war.

The combined media power of Manila Chronicle and ABS-CBN became so formidable it was indeed true that the Lopezes could make and unmake presidents... Except during martial law years the next generation of Lopezes continued the family tradition of using their media weapon against government as it did during the old man’s time. It deployed for the Lopez interests.

Dovie Beams

Dovie Beams was troublesome and knew how to manipulate men however wealthy or powerful they were. When Imelda discovered her husband’s affair, she decided to confront Dovie... “She barged in just like that and screamed she did not care if Marcos had an affair with her. That did not matter. He can have all the affairs he wanted. But did it have to be so public?” Dovie asked. “Unbelievable, I could not believe it when she said she was more humiliated than hurt about Marcos’s infidelity.”

It was hard to believe that a man as worldly wise and powerful as he was could have fallen for the trap of a wily woman – but there it was and Miss Beams had details and evidence no one else could have supplied except by someone who had been in bed with him no matter how much he denied it. Marcos did fall in love with Dovie.

Then the bombshell: she said that ‘Fred’ wanted her to have his baby as a lasting remembrance of his undying love for her. He said he would never forget how she had saved him from a nervous breakdown he would have suffered because of his inability to make love to Mrs. ‘Fred’ for the last two years... Pictures of Dovie in the nude were found among the personal effects of the Marcoses when they dashed out of Malacanang. Miss Beams said there was no marriage between Marcos and Imelda, only a political partnership... Whatever the doubts about Miss Beams’ revelations, there was no doubt about the nature of the storm that visited Malacanang. It broke the First Couple’s relationship.

“Dovie Beams, she could paint, talk about history, politics, the arts, philosophy... That’s what I think attracted Marcos to her,” recalled (Potenciano) Ilusorio in an interview. “She had a body and a brain.” This is something not often said about her, but that is what Imelda would not like to be said of Marcos’s mistress.

As soon as they reached Malacanang, and were ascending the grand staircase, Imelda shouted, “Darling, look what George (Sison) gave me!” She proudly showed Marcos the Dovie Beams tape of his singing ‘Pamulinawen’ while they made love. The most powerful man in the country could only look and stare.

But the scorned First Lady was not to be stopped, so George told her, “But you should not feel so bad. After all, so many kings and princes have more than one wife...” Imelda looked at him and said, “George, they are royalty. Ferdinand Marcos is only a plain Ilocano.”

The Trial

Marcos is the first wife of a foreign head of state to stand trial in an American court. US prosecutors said “she wove a spider’s web of deceit and corruption” that stretched halfway around the world. With testimonies from 95 witnesses, they tell a tangled tale of secret Swiss bank accounts and laundered money, forged signatures and phony names, bribes and kickbacks, smuggled paintings, a phantom ship loaded with Japanese gold from World War II, and offshore shams and scams of such complexity that one wonders how the Marcoses ever had time to run the country. The headlines from New York newspapers said otherwise and reported the findings of the prosecution, “She treated the Philippine National Bank as her personal piggy bank.”

Khashoggi’s lawyer defended the Marcoses’ wealth as normal in pursuit of the American dream. Well, it was the Filipino dream as well. Our story had to begin with the fabled Lopez family and how Imelda sought to reach their city status.