Vilified for more than two decades for her extravagant lifestyle as former first lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos is unbowed by the attacks against her.

At 78, the flamboyant widow of former strongman Ferdinand Marcos shrugs off accusations of corruption and abuse and even jokes about her infamous collection of 3,000 pairs of shoes.

"When the world looked into Imelda's closet, they found no skeletons. They found beautiful shoes," she said, beaming from a golden yellow sofa in her metropolitan Manila apartment packed with memorabilia of her late husband and their globetrotting lifestyle.

"I have more shoes now than before because people know I have no shoes, so everybody buys me shoes," the smiling grandmother of eight said, adding that her shoe collection was now "double than before."

As Filipinos marked the anniversary of a bloodless "people power" uprising on February 22 to 25, 1986, which toppled her husband's regime and chased them into exile in Hawaii, Imelda Marcos said she has no regrets about her life.

"No regrets because I never compromised the truth," said the woman dubbed the "Steel Butterfly" of the Philippines. "I have no bitterness in my heart nor anger in my soul."

"I had the best, best, best and also the worst, worst, worst," she added. "Name it and I had it."

Imelda Marcos, a former beauty queen, married Ferdinand Marcos in 1954 after a whirlwind courtship when he was a congressman. As first lady, she launched her own cultural programmes, beautification campaign and welfare projects.

She later became governor of Manila and head of a housing agency. The former president also sent her on diplomatic missions to such countries as the United States, China, Cuba, Libya and Iraq.

Supporters said Imelda Marcos, once called by the dictator as his "secret weapon" in politics, helped the former president reach out to the masses during their rule.

"She connected with the people," said Rita Festin, a former journalist who covered the first lady for one year before the Marcoses were deposed. "She worked so hard to serve the people. She's kind and accommodating."

Festin said she believes history would vindicate Imelda Marcos, whose projects then were criticized for being ostentatious and exorbitant but are now considered landmarks in the Philippines, such as the Cultural Center, the International Convention Center and several government hospitals.

"History will be kinder to them eventually," she predicted.

But critics assail the former first lady for being a culpable partner in the dictatorship, when thousands of opponents and anti-government activists were killed, tortured or disappeared during their rule.

 

"The people who lived during those times know that it was not about projects but about human rights abuses, shameless corruption," said Renato Reyes, secretary general of the left-wing New Nationalist Alliance, which fought hard against the Marcoses.

"They should not use their infrastructure projects to absolve themselves of any culpability," he said.

Twenty-two years after her husband's ouster, Imelda Marcos is unapologetic about her highly criticized excesses as first lady while millions of Filipinos languished in abject poverty.

"I am perhaps the most envious woman," she said. "I envy everyone, even the beggars in the streets, but the people I envy, I emulate and copy. I do not destroy. They enrich me."

"I am the greediest person in the world," she added. "It's natural. Anything beautiful, I want. Anything good, I want. Anything that is wonderful and right, I want. That's natural for human beings."

But Imelda Marcos quickly added that she believed that "in the end, the only things that we keep in life are those we give away."

Once shunned in the Philippines, where critics accuse her and her family of looting billions of dollars from the national coffers and committing human rights violations, Imelda Marcos said she was obsessed with doing good for the country.

"My work now is [to make sure that there is] no Filipino poor in two years," she said.
Imelda Marcos, however, said she could only work on her dream of a prosperous Philippines after she beats the remaining criminal and civil cases filed against her, allowing her to get back the couple's sequestered wealth and use it to fund her projects.

She said Ferdinand Marcos had amassed about 18,000 tons of gold that could easily prop up the Philippine economy now.

More than 900 cases had been filed against the Marcoses for crimes allegedly committed during their rule. They have beaten almost all, including a high-profile racketeering trial in New York that ended in an acquittal in 1990.

Away from the political limelight now, Imelda Marcos splits her time among her grandsons, jewelry design, humanitarian missions and some late-night socials.

With an energy of a teenager, the former first lady said that through her jewelry collection and a book she's writing on "mothering the rising spirit," she hopes to inspire others.
"The jewelry collection is not a business. It is a message," - she said. "Be Imeldific. Be creative and ingenious. Unleash the beauty in you."

She said she has the same vision for her book.

"It is to give hope to the whole world," - she said. "If Imelda made it, everybody can make it."