Marcoses Adjusting to Their Exile in Honolulu : Former First Couple of Philippines Have Hillside Home and Active Social Life

Imelda Marcos says she tends orchids and cooks, while her husband, deposed Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, says he enjoys moments of nostalgia in a shaded gazebo overlooking the sea. Their neighbors say they keep up an active social life.

Nine months into exile, the former first couple of the Philippines has moved to a secluded hillside home overlooking Honolulu, after spending several months at a rented beachfront home along a busy highway and one month under heavy guard at Hickam Air Force Base.

Marcos says the move was recommended by doctors, who felt the cooler air and quieter atmosphere of the hillside home was needed as the 69-year-old ex-leader recovers from cataract surgery.

Secluded Home

A large stone wall along the property’s edge and a corrugated metal gate across the driveway preclude any clear roadside view of the white, two-story, Spanish-style home.

The house, decorated with Oriental art and many plants, has a swimming pool and a large yard shaded by banyan trees.

A well-decorated Christmas tree has been set up in one room, and small statuettes of the Virgin Mary, Joseph, Jesus and the Magi complete a small Nativity scene in one area of the yard.

One recent morning, Mrs. Marcos, 57, busied herself clipping some of the dozens of potted orchids set on shelves. She said the plants were a gift. “At least I am growing things that are beautiful,” she told a visitor, as aides helped rake leaves around the shelves of plants. “Beggars can’t be choosers.”

‘So Maligned’

Mrs. Marcos then pointed out her shoes to the visitor, stating that they were a $7 plastic model. Later, she was asked her feelings regarding widespread reports of her extravagant tastes and extensive shoe collections.

“Please have mercy, we have been so maligned,” she said. “You are human, you are sensitive. So you stay home and try to grow something beautiful. I look up and I see a rainbow, and that is what life is about, to make a rainbow. I have been crucified for my reach for beauty--people feel beauty is frivolity. Beauty is art. I am being crucified for being a lover of what is beautiful.

“I don’t think there is a human citizen that has been so deprived, of liberty, of movement,” she added. “If you have a little money, you are (judged) corrupt. It is not what people say about you, history will judge you.”

Shaded Gazebo

Mrs. Marcos says that in addition to gardening, she cooks for the couple’s numerous aides, guests and gatherings. Asked whether she liked the new house better than the old beachfront home, the first lady expressed resignation. “We live wherever we are thrown,” she said.

For Marcos, a favorite place is a shaded gazebo at one end of the property.

“I go down to that cabana,” he said. “It overlooks the sea and it reminds me of my home, in the north.” Marcos was raised in the province of Ilocos Norte, in the northern Philippines. Their Honolulu neighbors report that the Marcoses live like others in the neighborhood, where most homes are secluded.

“They have done a good job camouflaging the estate, so we can’t see very well,” said one next-door neighbor, who asked that her name not be used. “I do see some dark limousines going up and down, but I don’t go out and look.”

‘Big on Singing’

Another next-door neighbor said, “They are big on singing, music, general party noise that no one minds, although they do seem to have the courtesy to stop the noise by midnight.”

The neighbor, who also asked that his name not be used, said, “It seems like every two or three days, there is some kind of affair over there.”

The man said he received a telephone call late one night from someone he believed to be from the Marcoses’ home, with singing in the background. The caller asked if the man could identify the music or the singer.

“I said, ‘Isn’t that the radio?’ And the man said, ‘No, that’s the voice of a lifetime, that is Imelda singing,’ ” the neighbor said.