Imelda’s Debt, Which Keeps on Going
/This March, it will be 30 years since the Philippines’ erstwhile first lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos, 90, was presented with a Demand for Payment for one of the largest personal debts known in history—a $5 million loan advanced by the late American tobacco heiress Doris Duke to Mrs. Marcos in late 1988 as bail money to stave off Imelda’s going to jail. Mrs. Marcos had just been charged with racketeering by New York’s Southern District court. After all this time, the debt remains unpaid and, counting interest, has more than doubled.
The portrait above was presented by Imelda to Duke at her Shangri-la residence sometime in 1989. It was one of the 18 or 19 canvases Imelda had commissioned of Ralph Wolfe Cowan in their relationship going over a dozen years. It is rumored that Imelda was able to negotiate wholesale prices with Cowan, averaging $37,500 per canvas. Notice that Imelda is wearing red pumps, while the born-rich Duke is completely barefoot in Duke’s Honolulu residence. Portraitist Cowan passed away in September 2018. (From left to right) Mark Deren (Cowan’s personal assistant), Marcos, Duke, and society painter Ralph Wolfe Cowan, on presentation of Imelda’s commissioned portrait of Duke in Honolulu, Hawaii,1989. Strangely enough, this portrait does not appear in public in Duke’s former residence in Honolulu, Shangri-la, which is now a tourist destination and open to the public on special, guided tours.
Duke’s Colorful Life
Duke, of North Carolina tobacco fame and fortune, was a neighbor and supposed “chum” of Imelda in her Hawaiian exile days of 1986-1990. In those years following the ouster of the Marcoses from power, Duke provided the only “link” to Imelda’s halcyon days with the international jet set, who had all but abandoned her in her fallen days.
Duke lived a colorful and fabled life like her friend Imelda, but with the title of “America’s Richest Girl.” She carried this title because she was the only child of James Buchanan Duke, the tobacco and hydroelectric-power tycoon whose most well-known legacies are the American Tobacco Company, Duke University and Duke Power.
As befitted the richest woman on the planet in her youth, Duke lived a wild, extravagant and Bohemian lifestyle. She was an accomplished jazz pianist, worked both as a correspondent for International News Service and Harper’s Bazaar in Paris and also at a canteen for sailors in World War II, in Alexandria, Egypt, taking only a salary of one dollar/year.
But perhaps the most colorful years of Duke’s youth were when she first fell in love not only with Hawaii, but also with one of its most colorful sons, coincidentally first-named “Duke.” In the mid-1930s (during the Philippines’ Commonwealth days under Manuel Quezon), Doris began her Hawaiian sojourn. She not only became the first non-Hawaiian, East Coast-reared gringa to have taken up competitive surfing under the tutelage of Duke Kahanamuko, but she also was his paramour despite her being married to James H.R. Cromwell.
The gringa East Coast Duke gal and the six Kahanamoku brothers; Duke to her immediate left. (“Hey, Duke!” “Which one?” “He or me”?) Good thing Duke Ellington couldn’t join them.
Duke gave birth to a daughter in Honolulu, Arden, who only lived one day. The child was supposedly by Kahanamoku. Duke K swam in three Olympic Games, winning three gold and two silver medals (one in water polo), but he was no more a royal Hawaiian “duke” than Elvis was “Blue Hawaii king.” (“Duke” was simply his baptismal first name.) After World War II, Doris’ second marriage was to the Dominican playboy, Porfirio Rubirosa. In 1988, Duke adopted 35-year-old Chandi (Charlene Gail Heffner) as “the daughter she lost.”
Duke, like the offspring of many wealthy families, also was once found guilty of manslaughter when she accidentally killed interior decorator Eduardo Tirella in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1966. As Tirella stepped down from the car Doris was driving and he was opening the gates to her mansion, Doris accidentally hit the accelerator and crushed Tirella against the gate. Of course, since she was Doris Duke, the Tirella family was able to settle for a mere $75,000. To her credit, Doris was also a philanthropist (who did not scam her charities unlike another well-known hereditary New York millionaire) and an Islamic art aficionado whose home in Honolulu is now a showcase of Islamic art.
One of the rooms at Duke’s former Honolulu estate, Shangri-la, a destination for admirers of Islamic art and architecture. It is now run by the Honolulu Museum of Art.
In November 1988, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) raised $5 million, by cashing in some bonds, to help Imelda Marcos cover her bail in New York City. Duke went out on a limb for Imelda because she felt, in so many words, “. . . it was the right thing to do for someone who was (not only a personal friend) but on a larger scale, had been ‘America’s friend’ as well.” Of course, the advance was made with the stipulation that the Lender would eventually like to see her money back plus whatever legal interest it accrued. So, the debt is actually 32-1/2 years old at this writing.
In September 1989, the quite ill dictator Ferdinand Marcos finally died in Honolulu.
In December, his widow returned to New York to face her trial. On March 6, 1990, a Demand for Payment Note for the $5 million loan was presented to Imelda. In July 1990, Imelda was acquitted in the New York court. After tidying up her affairs in the US, the widowed first lady returned home to Manila in November 1991, having said goodbye to her friend Doris in Honolulu.
Duke’s Suspicious Death
A year later, Duke underwent a face lift but her health subsequently began to fail afterwards. In Duke’s final bed-ridden months in Beverly Hills in 1993, Imelda even recommended a Filipino doctor to her. Following a second knee surgery in July, Duke’s health became progressively worse. She suffered a severe stroke and died on October 28, 1993, supposedly due to pulmonary edema leading to cardiac arrest. Within 24 hours of her death, her controversial butler who had become the major-domo of her affairs, had her remains cremated and quickly scattered at sea per his employer’s will, without even waiting for the county coroner to step in or do an autopsy.
Of course, she left behind an estate worth a few hundred million and her Foundation. The following is from Ms. Duke’s LAST WILL and TESTAMENT dated April 5, 1993 https://www.ddcf.org/globalassets/doris_duke_files/download_files/dorisdukewill.pdf :
“FOUR: A. The following loans were owed to me as of August, 1991:
6. (To a) RAPHAEL RECTO: One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000). I direct that, to the extent that these loans shall be outstanding at the time of my death, such loans shall be forgiven. (Who was this “Raphael Recto”? It probably was the current Philippine senator Ralph Recto’s father. In any case, this Mr. Recto got a $100,000 gift from Duke.)
B. I direct that my Executors make reasonable arrangements with IMELDA MARCOS (or the legal representatives of her estate, if she shall not survive me) for the repayment of the Five Million Dollars ($5,000,000), plus accrued interest, that I loaned to her pursuant to a demand note dated March 6, 1990, such repayment to be made when Mrs. Marcos and the Philippines government settle their financial dispute or at such other time as my Executors shall deem appropriate in their absolute discretion.”
The above link is, I believe, to a draft of Duke’s will. In any case, I am sure the matter pertaining to Imelda’s debt would not have changed substantially in the final version.
Doris and Imelda in happier times. (Left to right) Glecy Tantoco (Imelda’s advance guard, chief procurer-sycophant), Duke, Chandi and Imelda. Adopted daughter, Chandi, with whom Doris had a falling out later, was all but disowned in her will.
Will Imelda’s debt ever be paid? Not even when hell freezes over, and for several reasons:
One, Imelda has outlived Doris. I am sure Imelda is thinking Doris had several million dollars at her disposal when she was alive; surely, she wasn’t wanting for a mere five million. What more now that to ashes she had returned?
Two, Imelda still continues to plead “poverty.” Due to exposure to liability, not too many liquid assets are attached to Imelda directly. The Pacific Plaza penthouse, which she now calls home, was supposedly bought by her brothers and sisters; hence, the owner on record is probably a shell corporation with Limited Liability and cannot be seized easily.
Three, what recourse does Doris’ foundation have? Practically none. As far as is claimed, the surviving Marcoses no longer have any known tangible assets in the US that can be attached. Furthermore, Imelda and offsprings Imee and Bongbong have outstanding warrants in the US as scofflaws and deadbeats to the judgments of the Hawaii courts. Thus, none of them will voluntarily be setting foot on American soil any time soon. Hence, how can DDCF serve them a Collection Notice or lien if they no longer have any assets in the USA? (I reached out to DDCF for comments on the matter, but they declined.)
Can DDCF go after Imelda in the Philippines? That would probably be futile, too. DDCF has no legal standing in the Philippines. Let alone all the secret connections of the Marcoses with the present judiciary in the Philippines? And even if it were to seek collection in the Philippines, how could it collect (at the exchange rate of $1 equal Php50) one billion pesos from the shifty Marcoses? Even at a reasonable, non-usurious rate of 8.5%-9% per annum, the interest alone on the original debt has ballooned to over the original $5 million (est.) of the principal; thereby more than doubling to over $10 million today, 32 years later.
Imelda, the grande dame, will never spend a night in jail anywhere. While the likes of Leila de Lima, wrongfully convicted and imprisoned on trumped-up charges, courageous journalist Maria Ressa get clamped down, Imelda, with her powerful connections, continues to live out her privileged and protected existence. Not only are delaying legal tactics at her disposal to avoid any calaboose time, but her age (she will be 91 in July 2020), health and her “revered status” in Philippine society, cocoon her from spending any more time outside her exclusive Pacific Plaza penthouse.
Paying for the Wages of Sin
A footnote: In early December 2019, one of Imelda’s “gal-Fridays” from her New York “glory” days, one Vilma Bautista, was released early from prison where she was serving out a six-year sentence for tax evasion charges. In 2014, Bautista was convicted by the same New York Southern District Court (where Imelda was tried) for the backdoor sale of Claude Monet’s Le Bassin aux Nymphéas and vastly under-reporting the capital gains from its sale. Like her one-time mentor, Imelda, Bautista also waged a spirited battle to evade jail time, employing all the delaying tactics well-lawyered deadbeats use. But in December 2017, she ran out of options; so, at age 79, Bautista entered federal prison. This past December, she was granted early release due to her advanced age, 81, and for good behavior.
It’s good to have very rich friends – especially if they die before you in some faraway place. You might “inherit” a $10 million+ Get-Outta-Jail card. Wink-wink.
SOURCES:
Doris Duke’s Last Will and Testament: https://www.ddcf.org/globalassets/doris_duke_files/download_files/dorisdukewill.pdf
https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/03/world/doris-duke-offers-mrs-marcos-s-bail.html
http://kianadavenportdialogues.blogspot.com/2015/04/doris-duke-uncle-onoa-love-story.html
Myles Garcia
Myles A. Garcia is a Correspondent and regular contributor to www.positivelyfilipino.com. He has written three books: Secrets of the Olympic Ceremonies (latest edition, 2016); Thirty Years Later . . . Catching Up with the Marcos-Era Crimes (© 2016); and his latest, Of Adobe, Apple Pie, and Schnitzel With Noodles—all available in paperback from amazon.com (Australia, USA, Canada, UK and Europe).
Myles is also a member of the International Society of Olympic Historians (ISOH), contributing to their Journal, and pursuing dramatic writing lately. For any enquiries: razor323@gmail.com
More articles from Myles A. Garcia