Imelda boogies at 73, B’day bash doesn’t

She sparkled with jewellery, which aides said used to belong to members of European royalty and was acquired from famous auction houses during the Marcoses’ days in power. Five-carat, rough-cut diamonds glowed in her ears and a right finger glistened with a heart-shaped diamond her future husband gave her as an engagement ring.

As she cut a 20-foot-high cake the top of which almost reached the ceiling of the five-star hotel ballroom, guests’ eyes fell on a bracelet gleaming on her right forearm. ‘‘It used to belong to the Empress Josephine, a gift from Napoleon,’’ a long-time Marcos friend said. ‘‘It’s most sentimental for her (Imelda) because it was the gift given to her by the President on their 25th wedding anniversary.’’

The splendour was still there but the cheers seemed just a little fainter, said some guests, who had attended previous birthday bashes for the most controversial first lady to stride the halls of the Philippine presidential palace. When the band struck up a well-known Marcos martial hymn as the celebrant strode into the ballroom, guests stood watching her. There were no cheers, and no applause.

At the height of the party, many guests remained in their chairs as Imelda took to the floor with her grandson Borgy, a top model, and broke into a cha cha. Then she followed with a boogie. Imelda was her usual, unsinkable self, snuffing out with one blow the lights from the 11 candles at the foot of the giant cake. The candles stood for her eight grandchildren and three children.

A little earlier this year, an anti-graft court reversed its previous ruling and declared that the Philippine government had not fully established that the more than $600 million the Marcoses were alleged to have stashed away in Swiss banks belonged to the family.

(Reuters)