Son of the Iron Butterfly

IN my Jan. 26, 2024 column, observed that Iron Butterfly Mrs. Imelda Marcos enjoyed to the utmost her unofficial role as top diplomat of the Marcos dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s. According to journalist and (unofficial) Imelda biographer Carmen Pedrosa:

“As co-dictator, Imelda would take responsibility for Philippine diplomatic efforts. She would make more than 50 international junkets in less than a decade, ostensibly to discuss pressing world problems with dozens of heads of state.”

In this sense, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., featured in popular international game show “Jeopardy,” playfully as “Ferdinand Magellan Jr.” for his prolific foreign travels, clearly inherited the Iron Butterfly’s love for junkets. Bongbong admitted in an interview that he genuinely enjoys going on official foreign trips because he loves to travel.

It is quite curious for a head of state to refer to official diplomatic missions as “travel.”

Pedrosa suggests that Imelda’s addiction to foreign junkets — which her son has inherited — helped erase the painful memories of her youth. The humiliations she experienced at the hands of older and more affluent Romualdez relations drove Imelda to reach for power, wealth and social status. Moreover, she did not stop with domestic successes; the Iron Butterfly sought to conquer the international scene using her Imeldific persona.

At this point, a distinction must be made between Mrs. Marcos’ Iron Butterfly and Imeldific personas.

The Los Angeles Times explained that Imelda earned the nickname “Iron Butterfly” due to her frequent resort to exaggerated expressions of femininity to mask her considerable political ambition. In short, Imelda uses the Iron Butterfly persona as a tool to accomplish political objectives.

The Imeldific persona, on the other hand, helped Mrs. Marcos bury her traumatic past through vulgar flexing of her newfound wealth and power. It also helped Imelda put her own outrageous stamp on the global scene. Frivolity and ostentation advanced the Imeldific agenda to the widespread humiliation and ridicule of the Philippines.

In between the Iron Butterfly and Imeldific personas was an ambitious scheme concocted to promote Mrs. Marcos as a potential leader of the Philippines to succeed her husband, the dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

Marcos was aging and sick. He had no plans to turn over the reins of the dictatorship to his martial law right-hand man, defense chief Juan Ponce Enrile. When Enrile realized that Marcos was maneuvering to have co-dictator Imelda take over (until successor-in-waiting Bongbong was ready), he set in motion what eventually materialized as a poorly hatched and executed coup d’etat in 1986. Enrile’s clumsy coup plotters — pencilpushing military bodyguards with limited field experience — had to be saved by People Power.

Even though a co-dictator of her husband, Imelda still needed the appearances of a democratic mandate. Unfortunately, Filipinos did not favorably respond to Mrs. Marcos as potential president, according to a 1969 survey. Carmen Pedrosa further asserts that beginning in Marcos’ second term in 1969, “Imelda’s extravagance had become the focus of the people’s discontent,” and her “growing unpopularity” among Filipino voters played a hand in the declaration of martial law in 1972.

Imelda was appointed to key government posts by her husband to improve her profile as a politician. She became governor of Metro Manila and Minister of Human Settlements in the mid-1970s, and sat in the newly minted Batasang Pambansa in 1978. Marcos hoped these could help the Filipino people warm to the idea of Imelda as his potential successor.

It is uncertain if the Iron Butterfly’s initial foray into the world of international diplomacy was an Imeldific whim (i.e., an opportunity to hobnob with the international jet set crowd; see my Manila Times column of Jan. 26, 2024) or a desperate push to improve Mrs. Marcos’ profile as future leader of the Philippines. Nevertheless, her visit with ailing Chinese strongman Mao Zedong in 1974 (with Bongbong in tow) became a diplomatic success; Chairman Mao’s tender kiss of the Iron Butterfly’s hand is described by the South China Morning Post as “still… [the] high point of bilateral relations [between China and the Philippines].”

The Iron Butterfly’s diplomatic victory in China further emboldened the dictatorship to send Imelda to visit countries and foreign leaders who were generally shunned by the West. For Mao’s China, Fidel Castro’s Cuba, the Shah of Iran, Muammar Qaddafi’s Libya, among others, the visit of the first lady of the Philippines, the co-dictator of a former United States colony (and a prominent client-state) and host to its largest overseas military bases, was a significant contribution to their respective propaganda campaigns, particularly toward the West.

Imelda’s use of her feminine charms on notorious world leaders — her Iron Butterfly diplomacy — was expected to boost her profile and legitimacy as co-dictator and future leader of the Philippines.

It was a match made in perverts’ heaven.

To be continued next Friday, Feb. 16, 2024