Tourism chief cool to Imelda Marcos gems exhibit
Would the notorious background of Imelda Marcos’ jewelry be enough come-on for tourists to travel all the way to Manila to view them?
Newly confirmed Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez raised this question Wednesday following reports that the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) wants his department to exhibit the former first lady’s jewelry before a planned auction.
More specifically, the PCGG wants the Department of Tourism to showcase the Iron Butterfly’s gems at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, a stone’s throw from the vault of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas where the famed jewelry are kept.
Jimenez remains cool to the idea, especially the part where PCGG Chairman Andres Bautista thinks the “notoriety” of the jewels’ former owner would add premium to the collection and attract curiosity-seekers.
The secretary said the PCGG proposal was “something that has to be evaluated. Any exhibit is possible but I have to see it first.”
The PCGG said the recommendation to display the jewelry was given to Jimenez in March. The secretary told reporters, however, that the commission made the proposal “before my time.”
Jimenez has been heading the Department of Tourism for almost a year.
“Just because it’s jewelry doesn’t mean it’s touristic so I will (have to) see . . . . Notoriety is not exactly the best way to attract tourists,” the secretary said.
“I do not look at implications other than the fact that it’s possibly an opportunity for our people to draw in more tourists. If that is what (PCGG officials) think it is,” he added.
Bautista said the PCGG already got a call from the international auction house Sotheby’s expressing interest in auctioning off Imelda’s jewelry.
Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie O
While estimates put the jewelry collection’s value between $10 million and $20 million, Bautista believes the former first lady’s “notoriety” could push her seized jewelry’s value up.
Bautista was apparently thinking of the precedent set by the sale of jewelry owned by other famous women, including Elizabeth Taylor, Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis and the Duchess of Windsor. The jewels these personalities had owned fetched figures way beyond the expectations of auctioneers.
Marcos lived the life of a bon vivant with an unlimited shopping allowance during her late husband’s presidency.
When Ferdinand Marcos escaped to Honolulu at the height of the Edsa People Power Revolution in 1986, his wife brought along with her 400 pieces of jewelry that were later seized by the US Bureau of Customs.
This was apart from the roughly 300 pieces of jewelry, left behind in Malacañang when the Marcos family fled in haste to Clark Air Base before flying to Hawaii.
The Philippine government also keeps the so-called Roumeliotes collection of 60 pieces of jewelry, named after the ex-first lady’s alleged Greek accomplice, Demetriou Roumeliotes, who was caught trying to smuggle the items out of the country a few weeks after the Marcoses left.
The Roumeliotes collection is believed to be the most expensive, as it includes a 37-carat diamond.
Exhibit OK with Sen. Marcos
At the Senate Wednesday, Imelda’s son, Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., said his mother had thought of displaying her jewelry when they were still in power.
But putting the jewelry up for auction would be a different and more difficult issue, he said.
The senator recalled having family talks in which his mother’s famed jewels were discussed.
“I remember we talked about it several times. She asked, ‘What shall I do with these?’ The family agreed to put it on public display because the people deserve to see them,” he said in Filipino.
Which means the PCGG plan to exhibit his mother’s gems is a welcome move.
Missing items
Senator Marcos noted, however, that his mother once complained that there were many pieces missing after reading a list of her seized jewelry provided by the commission.
“I have no idea how many pieces are no longer accounted for but when we once asked for the list from the PCGG, my mother noted that many were not on the list,” he told reporters.
“The question she asked was ‘Bakit konti na lang ‘yun?’” the senator added.
Gifts from dad
Not being the sentimental type, the younger Marcos said he did not recall a specific piece that would elicit memories for him.
“I know it’s valuable and beautiful. I recall some pieces that my dad gave my mother on her birthday or at Christmas. I’m sure she can tell you which ones,” he said.
The senator turned grim when asked about the PCGG plan to put the pieces up for sale.
“Has it already been decided that these jewelry transferred ownership? Or is the whole case still in limbo? I’m not following the case very intently but I can tell you, she did not just get those jewelry. She bought those (hindi naman basta kinuha lang ‘yun, siya ang bumili nun),” he said.
By Cathy C. Yamsuan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
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Newly confirmed Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez raised this question Wednesday following reports that the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) wants his department to exhibit the former first lady’s jewelry before a planned auction.
More specifically, the PCGG wants the Department of Tourism to showcase the Iron Butterfly’s gems at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, a stone’s throw from the vault of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas where the famed jewelry are kept.
Jimenez remains cool to the idea, especially the part where PCGG Chairman Andres Bautista thinks the “notoriety” of the jewels’ former owner would add premium to the collection and attract curiosity-seekers.
The secretary said the PCGG proposal was “something that has to be evaluated. Any exhibit is possible but I have to see it first.”
The PCGG said the recommendation to display the jewelry was given to Jimenez in March. The secretary told reporters, however, that the commission made the proposal “before my time.”
Jimenez has been heading the Department of Tourism for almost a year.
“Just because it’s jewelry doesn’t mean it’s touristic so I will (have to) see . . . . Notoriety is not exactly the best way to attract tourists,” the secretary said.
“I do not look at implications other than the fact that it’s possibly an opportunity for our people to draw in more tourists. If that is what (PCGG officials) think it is,” he added.
Bautista said the PCGG already got a call from the international auction house Sotheby’s expressing interest in auctioning off Imelda’s jewelry.
Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie O
While estimates put the jewelry collection’s value between $10 million and $20 million, Bautista believes the former first lady’s “notoriety” could push her seized jewelry’s value up.
Bautista was apparently thinking of the precedent set by the sale of jewelry owned by other famous women, including Elizabeth Taylor, Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis and the Duchess of Windsor. The jewels these personalities had owned fetched figures way beyond the expectations of auctioneers.
Marcos lived the life of a bon vivant with an unlimited shopping allowance during her late husband’s presidency.
When Ferdinand Marcos escaped to Honolulu at the height of the Edsa People Power Revolution in 1986, his wife brought along with her 400 pieces of jewelry that were later seized by the US Bureau of Customs.
This was apart from the roughly 300 pieces of jewelry, left behind in Malacañang when the Marcos family fled in haste to Clark Air Base before flying to Hawaii.
The Philippine government also keeps the so-called Roumeliotes collection of 60 pieces of jewelry, named after the ex-first lady’s alleged Greek accomplice, Demetriou Roumeliotes, who was caught trying to smuggle the items out of the country a few weeks after the Marcoses left.
The Roumeliotes collection is believed to be the most expensive, as it includes a 37-carat diamond.
Exhibit OK with Sen. Marcos
At the Senate Wednesday, Imelda’s son, Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., said his mother had thought of displaying her jewelry when they were still in power.
But putting the jewelry up for auction would be a different and more difficult issue, he said.
The senator recalled having family talks in which his mother’s famed jewels were discussed.
“I remember we talked about it several times. She asked, ‘What shall I do with these?’ The family agreed to put it on public display because the people deserve to see them,” he said in Filipino.
Which means the PCGG plan to exhibit his mother’s gems is a welcome move.
Missing items
Senator Marcos noted, however, that his mother once complained that there were many pieces missing after reading a list of her seized jewelry provided by the commission.
“I have no idea how many pieces are no longer accounted for but when we once asked for the list from the PCGG, my mother noted that many were not on the list,” he told reporters.
“The question she asked was ‘Bakit konti na lang ‘yun?’” the senator added.
Gifts from dad
Not being the sentimental type, the younger Marcos said he did not recall a specific piece that would elicit memories for him.
“I know it’s valuable and beautiful. I recall some pieces that my dad gave my mother on her birthday or at Christmas. I’m sure she can tell you which ones,” he said.
The senator turned grim when asked about the PCGG plan to put the pieces up for sale.
“Has it already been decided that these jewelry transferred ownership? Or is the whole case still in limbo? I’m not following the case very intently but I can tell you, she did not just get those jewelry. She bought those (hindi naman basta kinuha lang ‘yun, siya ang bumili nun),” he said.
By Cathy C. Yamsuan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
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SWS: Aquino gets highest satisfaction rate
President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III seems to have regained Pinoys' thumbs-up, according to a recent survey showing a record satisfaction rating for his administration in August.
Aquino's net satisfaction rating is back to "very good" levels and is at its highest point so far at +67, after dropping to "good" at +42 in May, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said in a report originally published in BusinessWorld Friday.
The results of the Aug. 24-27 survey, conducted through face-to-face interviews with 1,200 Filipino adults, topped the administration's previous high of +64 in Nov. 2010.
The net satisfaction score is the difference between the percentage of respondents who said they are "satisfied" with the Aquino administration and those who said they are "dissatisfied," the SWS said.
In the latest report, 77 percent of Filipinos surveyed approved of Aquino while 10 percent expressed dissatisfaction.
This compares to results in May where satisfaction rate was at 63 percent and dissatisfaction rate was pegged at 21 percent.
Aquino's score is the third highest satisfaction rate posted by an administration since SWS started the survey in 1986.
His mother, Corazon Aquino, holds the record +72 in October 1986. The second highest score was +69, seen during the administration of Fidel Ramos in July 1993.
Aquino's latest rating is tied with that of Estrada's highest score of +67 in March 1999.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's highest score, meanwhile, was +30 in March 2004.
Commenting on the report, Malacañang said "the consistently strong numbers affirm the President's mandate for change."
"These results mirror the strong showing of the Philippines, especially with respect to its institutions and governance, in the recent Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum," Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said in a statement.
The figures also show the public's "positive feeling about our nation's direction and prospects for the future," Lacierda added.
SWS table showed that all socioeconomic classes expressed high satisfaction with Aquino.
By Kim Arveen Patria | Yahoo! Southeast Asia Newsroom
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Aquino's net satisfaction rating is back to "very good" levels and is at its highest point so far at +67, after dropping to "good" at +42 in May, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said in a report originally published in BusinessWorld Friday.
The results of the Aug. 24-27 survey, conducted through face-to-face interviews with 1,200 Filipino adults, topped the administration's previous high of +64 in Nov. 2010.
The net satisfaction score is the difference between the percentage of respondents who said they are "satisfied" with the Aquino administration and those who said they are "dissatisfied," the SWS said.
In the latest report, 77 percent of Filipinos surveyed approved of Aquino while 10 percent expressed dissatisfaction.
This compares to results in May where satisfaction rate was at 63 percent and dissatisfaction rate was pegged at 21 percent.
Aquino's score is the third highest satisfaction rate posted by an administration since SWS started the survey in 1986.
His mother, Corazon Aquino, holds the record +72 in October 1986. The second highest score was +69, seen during the administration of Fidel Ramos in July 1993.
Aquino's latest rating is tied with that of Estrada's highest score of +67 in March 1999.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's highest score, meanwhile, was +30 in March 2004.
Commenting on the report, Malacañang said "the consistently strong numbers affirm the President's mandate for change."
"These results mirror the strong showing of the Philippines, especially with respect to its institutions and governance, in the recent Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum," Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said in a statement.
The figures also show the public's "positive feeling about our nation's direction and prospects for the future," Lacierda added.
SWS table showed that all socioeconomic classes expressed high satisfaction with Aquino.
By Kim Arveen Patria | Yahoo! Southeast Asia Newsroom
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No more delay in RH bill..
If our senators and congressmen truly see themselves as servants of the people, they must end all debates on the long overdue reproductive health bill forthwith and vote to pass or reject it.
In the current Congress alone, the bill has been debated extensively for more than a year, both inside and outside the legislative halls. But the real debate has been going on for much longer.
Since 1998, when the first version of the reproductive health bill was filed, the issue has been vigorously debated. Yet all efforts to even bring the measure to a vote in Congress have failed, derailed by a Catholic Church-backed opposition that has favored dogma, rhetoric and ignorance over science, logic and education. Thus far, these forces have used fear, veiled threats and delays to stifle any suggestion of population management. They will seek to do it again.
Is it possible that we have been unable to examine this issue from all possible angles after more than a decade of discussion and debate? The reasonable answer that presumes some modicum of intelligence on all our parts is “no.” Given the years of discussion in Congress, in church and town halls, on radio and TV talk shows, and on countless pages of newspapers and magazines, we must agree with Senators Miriam Defensor Santiago and Pia Cayetano, who say that the time is ripe to put the bill to a vote.
But Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile disagrees, and raises the possibility that debates may be revived in the Senate yet again, ostensibly to take into consideration his latest reasons for opposing the bill. He dismisses their suggestions for an immediate vote and even mocks them, saying: “It’s ripe for them but not for us. I don’t know what they mean by ripe. It is not a banana, a mango or a durian.”
Senator Enrile’s latest objection to the reproductive health bill is based on the phenomenon seen in some industrialized countries where a shrinking population of young workers must pay for the care and upkeep of a larger, aging population. This, he warns, could strain or even bankrupt the national pension system.
Why the senator had not brought this up before is anybody’s guess—but now he has put the idea out there, along with thousands of others that have already been digested by his colleagues and the public at large. There is no need to further delay a vote simply to debate that point.
Besides, one might argue that a graying population is one of those “good problems to have,” in view of the current situation in which millions go hungry every day because we simply cannot sustain our birth rate, or the millions who will grow up stupid and dull, simply because their parents cannot afford to give them the proper nutrition and education they deserve.
But Mr. Enrile already knows this.
“Who will become policemen, soldiers, workers, laborers? Who will plant [rice] for the public to eat?” he says. It is gratifying to see that Mr. Enrile, in his advanced age, has his priorities straight.
by: manila standard today
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In the current Congress alone, the bill has been debated extensively for more than a year, both inside and outside the legislative halls. But the real debate has been going on for much longer.
Since 1998, when the first version of the reproductive health bill was filed, the issue has been vigorously debated. Yet all efforts to even bring the measure to a vote in Congress have failed, derailed by a Catholic Church-backed opposition that has favored dogma, rhetoric and ignorance over science, logic and education. Thus far, these forces have used fear, veiled threats and delays to stifle any suggestion of population management. They will seek to do it again.
Is it possible that we have been unable to examine this issue from all possible angles after more than a decade of discussion and debate? The reasonable answer that presumes some modicum of intelligence on all our parts is “no.” Given the years of discussion in Congress, in church and town halls, on radio and TV talk shows, and on countless pages of newspapers and magazines, we must agree with Senators Miriam Defensor Santiago and Pia Cayetano, who say that the time is ripe to put the bill to a vote.
But Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile disagrees, and raises the possibility that debates may be revived in the Senate yet again, ostensibly to take into consideration his latest reasons for opposing the bill. He dismisses their suggestions for an immediate vote and even mocks them, saying: “It’s ripe for them but not for us. I don’t know what they mean by ripe. It is not a banana, a mango or a durian.”
Senator Enrile’s latest objection to the reproductive health bill is based on the phenomenon seen in some industrialized countries where a shrinking population of young workers must pay for the care and upkeep of a larger, aging population. This, he warns, could strain or even bankrupt the national pension system.
Why the senator had not brought this up before is anybody’s guess—but now he has put the idea out there, along with thousands of others that have already been digested by his colleagues and the public at large. There is no need to further delay a vote simply to debate that point.
Besides, one might argue that a graying population is one of those “good problems to have,” in view of the current situation in which millions go hungry every day because we simply cannot sustain our birth rate, or the millions who will grow up stupid and dull, simply because their parents cannot afford to give them the proper nutrition and education they deserve.
But Mr. Enrile already knows this.
“Who will become policemen, soldiers, workers, laborers? Who will plant [rice] for the public to eat?” he says. It is gratifying to see that Mr. Enrile, in his advanced age, has his priorities straight.
by: manila standard today
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