User:Alternativity/sandbox/Marcos jewels

The Marcos Jewelry Collection, also known as the Marcos Jewels, refers broadly to the Jewelry collection of the Marcos family in the Philippines - mostly acquired by former First Lady Imelda Marcos, but in some cases also by her daughter, Imee Marcos. More specifically, it refers to three collections of jewels which were sequestered by the Philippine Government from the Marcos Family when they fled the Philippines after being ousted by the 1986 People Power Revolution. These three collections of Marcos Jewelry have come to be referred to as the Malacañang collection, the Hawaiian collection, and the Roumeliotes collection.

The Marcos Family's Rise to Power
Imelda Romualdez and then-Congressman Ferdinand Marcos first met on 6 April 1954 and, after a whirlwind 11-day courtship, got married on 17 April 1954. Although Ferdinand is known to have had children from a previous relationship, Ferdinand and Imelda's eldest child, Imee Marcos, was born in 1955, and their only son, Bongbong Marcos, was born in 1957.

Imelda became First Lady of the Philippines when Ferdinand was inaugurated as the Tenth President of the Philippines on 30 December 1965, marking the beginning of his 21 years in power, despite constitutional limits that only allowed two four-year terms of office.

Marcos Plunder
The Marcoses were estimated to have amassed assets worth US$5-10 billion during their 21-year regime in the Philippines. Among the sources of the Marcos wealth are alleged to be diverted foreign economic aid, US Government military aid (including huge discretionary funds at Marcos disposal as a "reward" for sending some Filipino troops to Vietnam) and kickbacks from public works contracts over a 2-decades-long rule.

According to Jovito Salonga in his book "Presidential Plunder", which details Salonga's time as head of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, these cronies helped the Marcoses amass his wealth by aiding him in one or more of what Salonga called "Marcos' Techniques of Plunder."

These techniques, Says salonga, were:
 * 1) Creating monopolies and putting them under the control of cronies;
 * 2) Awarding behest loans to cronies from Government banking or financing institutions;
 * 3) Forced takeovers of various public or private enterprises, with a nominal amount as payment;
 * 4) Direct raiding of the public treasury and Government Financing Institutions;
 * 5) Issuance of Presidential Decrees or orders, enabling cronies to amass wealth;
 * 6) Kickbacks and commissions from enterprises doing business in the Philippines;
 * 7) Use of shell corporations and dummy companies to launder money overseas;
 * 8) Skimming off of Foreign Aid and other forms of International Assistance; and
 * 9) Hiding wealth in overseas bank accounts using pseudonyms or code names.

Aside from jewels, and cash stashed in various overseas banks, this wealth was allegedly used to collect properties throughout the Philippines and the United States, a 175-piece collection of major artworks, and most infamously, Imelda Marcos' collection of shoes.

The Marcos art collection is known to have included works by Michelangelo, Botticelli, Canaletto, Raphael, as well as Monet's L'Église et La Seine à Vétheuil (1881), Alfred Sisley's Langland Bay (1887), and Albert Marquet's Le Cyprès de Djenan Sidi Said (1946).

Imelda Marcos' collection of shoes  now lies partly in the National Museum of the Philippines and partly in a shoe museum in Marikina.

1986 ouster, and division of the jewelry collection
Increasing unrest springing from the economic collapse of the Philippines through the late '70s and early '80s came to a head in February 1986, when the People Power Revolution succeeded in unseating the Marcoses from Malacañang palace.

Fearful of a scenario in which Marcos' presence in the Philippines would lead to a civil war, the Reagan administration flew Marcos and a party of about 80 individuals - the extended Marcos family and a number of close associates - from the Philippines to Hawaii despite Marcos' objections. The exiles stayed at Hickam Air Force Base at the expense of the US Government, then moved into a pair of residences in Makiki Heights, Honolulu, which were registered to Antonio Floirendo and Bienvenido and Gliceria Tantoco, a month later.

When the Marcoses fled to Honolulu, they carried a collection of jewels, which were promptly confiscated and cataloged by US Customs officers at Hickam Air Force Base. This collection of Marcos Jewels eventually came to be known as the "Hawaiian Collection."

Marcos eventually died in exile in 1989, and in 1991 President Corazon Aquino allowed the Marcoses, to return to the Philippines in order to face various charges. News reports from the period record that Marcos supporters organized crowd from Manila's slums to welcome the Marcoses on their return.

Roumeliotes collection
A third collection of Marcos jewels, now known as the Roumeliotes collection, consisting of 60 pieces of fine jewelry, was confiscated by the Philippines' Bureau of Customs from a Greek national by the name of Demetriou Roumeliotes on March 9, 1986, eleven days after the Marcoses fled the country. Upon discovering that Roumeliotes was about to board a flight out of the Philippines while carrying 60 pieces of jewelry addressed to Imelda Marcos, the Bureau of Customs confiscated them and took them to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for itemization and safekeeping.