No, Imelda Marcos Hasn't Kicked the Bucket
No, Imelda Marcos is not dead. The 93-year-old former First Lady is still “strong and kicking,” family members said after rumors about her supposed passing spread on social media, particularly Twitter, this week.
Her daughter, Senator Imee Marcos, sent a text message to reporters belying the reports.
“Last week pa iyan,” the senator said. “Ang bad ng nagkalat.”
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Imelda’s niece Eliza Romualdez-Valtos also posted a denial on Facebook, although it has since been deleted.
“Still strong and kicking,” Valtos said in the post along with an old photo of her aunt with red hearts around it.
The family was forced to issue a denial after news of the Marcos family matriarch’s passing began making the rounds on Twitter. “Imelda” even became a trending topic over the last couple of days.
Imelda Marcos has very rarely made public appearances in recent months. In July last year, just a few days after her son Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr was sworn in as President, she celebrated her 93rd birthday inside Malacañang Palace in what her daughter Imee said was a “simple” affair with family and friends.
After her family’s return from exile following the Edsa People Power Revolution of 1986, Imelda Marcos returned to a life politics. She ran for President twice, in the 1992 and 1998 elections, but lost both times. She has served as Representative of her home province of Leyte, then of Ilocos Norte.
Marcos has been convicted of several counts of graft by the Sandiganbayan for which she was sentenced to up to 42 years imprisonment, although thanks to several appeals and a lenient approach by the Philippine National Police due to her advanced age, she has never spent a day in jail.
