Her reputation as an accomplished political arm of Marcos during the campaign was well deserved, and the President-elect conceded that she was responsible for a million votes, the margin that made him

To the public at large, and at a safe distance, she did exude the confidence and poise of an heiress. But as with the image of Marcos, there were flaws in Imelda’s media image. Manila is a small city.

The most shop-worn joke in Manila was that the Philippines had spent “three hundred years in a convent, fifty years in a brothel.” The oligarchy kept the keys.*When asked about the enormous wealth that