Visitors Offer Condolences, Gifts to Family at Home in Honolulu

Visitors streamed through the large green gates of the Marcos family compound all day and into the night Thursday, offering condolences and bearing food and other gifts, while the family of former Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos mourned his death.

Inside the palatial compound overlooking Honolulu, the body of Marcos lay in the living room, where his widow, Imelda, greeted mourners.

Aides to the family said Imelda Marcos had been up all night and was “bearing it very well.”

“She’s talking and receiving visitors,” family spokesman Leonie Tan said. He expressed irritation that condolences from the White House over Marcos’ death had been passed through the media instead of directed personally to the Philippines’ former first lady.

Tan also said Imelda Marcos hopes the White House will pressure the Philippine government of President Corazon Aquino to allow Marcos to be buried in his homeland. Aquino has refused on national security grounds.

Family members were reported resting Thursday after the bedside vigil that ended with Marcos’ death at 3:40 a.m. PDT Thursday at St. Francis Medical Center.

After the death was announced, women from Honolulu’s Filipino community took cakes and other gifts to the family, while delivery trucks dropped off bouquets of flowers.

No estimate was available on the number of visitors. But the line of cars to the compound choked the narrow, winding street on a hill in the exclusive neighborhood of Makiki Heights.

While Marcos lived, many powerful Philippine figures came to visit, although the former president was confined to the medical center for the last nine months. Philippine Vice President Salvador Laurel came last February on what he termed a “humanitarian mission,” and former Cabinet members held a sorrowful reunion with Marcos in March.

The Marcoses arrived in Hawaii on Feb. 26, 1986, after fleeing the Philippines. They often entertained, although not in the lavish style to which they had been accustomed in Manila, and continued to maintain a loyal retinue of followers.

In 1987, Marcos celebrated his 70th birthday with about 6,000 supporters at a public arena in Honolulu.

On Thursday, Tan said Marcos’ body would stay at the residence for three days. The family tentatively plans a funeral Mass on Sunday, he said, adding, “After that, we do not know.”