Certainly Corazon Aquino was a very brave lady considering the state of Filipino politics where an opponent can be bumped off for 50 quid.
Yet she was also in the right place at the right time as a potential leader the CIA correctly realised that when they told the Marcos' to basically piss off as they no longer had US support, Aquino would unite a troubled country for a time and secure US military bases.
Aquino then had the difficult job of negotiating a still treacherous Filipino politics where only the Cardinal Sin (what a name !) could at any time, call a halt to a revolution in that heavily Catholic country (and who was the one who actually told Ferdinand and Imelda to hop on that helicopter and depart quick smart to Honolulu).
I travelled on a junket with Fleet Street's finest once in great luxury to the grand opening of Imelda's pet project, the Philippines Film Festival and the launch her multi-million dollar film centre. This was to be the centre of a revived Asian film industry.
No expense was spared..limos from the airport to the fable Manila Hotel (sadly I was given an ordinary room while Jack Tinker of the Mail got the famous Douglas McCarthur suite)
I made up my indignation by raiding the mini bar each day (a trick learnt from Angie Bowie who in leaner days would sweep the entire contents into her handdbag-ring room service to have the mini-bar replenished and do it all over again).
When the day came for the grand opening of the Manila Film Centre we were transported like visiting royalty to meet the amazing Imelda..I think they invented the word 'kitsch'in honour of Imelda.
And yes-we were treated to a rendition of Imelda's wondrous version of "Feelings " with full backing of the Philippines Orchestra. Her flirting with the assembled crowd as she strokes the microphone can be quite startling especially when she zones in you.
But the feelings that began to filter through the invited crowd as the evening wore on and vintage champagne was consumed was one of a feeling of dread that impermeated the guests. It was so palpable that many began to comment upon it and openly talk about it and why did we feel this way( and not just because we had whizzed by in luxury cars-huge garbage dumps where entire families foraged and lived)
And then we were told. So impatient was Imelda to get her Film Centre built in time and due to lax Filipino building codes that at least 25 Filipino workers died during construction and Imelda-rather than bow to Filipino superstition just ordered their bodies be concreted over and work carry on.
So there we were, being lavishly entertained above the entombed bodies of those workers. The mood soured.
Then Cory came along and poor Imelda's dreams of film glory faded into dust-except the building still remains, empty, a large concrete ghastly bunker where not even the homeless will live.
When the yellow revolution happened the Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans who was in town and was given a personal tour of the Marcos palace and (having always despised them) described to US TV in great length the number, varitey and colour of all the dildos he found in Imelda's dressing room along with her shoes
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