Former first lady Imelda Marcos set to leave hospital

March 14, 2024 - 12:43 PM
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Former first lady Imelda Marcos smiles with her son and newly-elected President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., during the inauguration ceremony at the National Museum in Manila, Philippines, June 30, 2022. (Reuters/Eloisa Lopez)

 The Philippine’s former first lady Imelda Marcos is set to leave hospital on Thursday, after suffering from fever and a slight pneumonia, her son President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said.

The 94-year-old widow of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. has been hospitalized since last week and was put on antibiotics. She is renowned for amassing more than a thousand pairs of shoes and a vast collection of jewels.

“She’s recovering well. She’s scheduled to come out on, I think, Thursday.” Marcos Jr. told reporters on Wednesday while on a working visit in Germany.

Marcos said his mother is “in good spirits” and wants to go home soon.

“She has been complaining of the food in the hospital.”

Imelda Marcos and her family have been accused of looting more than $10 billion from the Southeast Asian country in bank deposits, shares, jewelry, art and property before her husband was ousted by a popular uprising in 1986.

In the last three decades, the government has recovered about half of the wealth the family and its associates were accused of plundering.

Imelda Marcos was charged with civil and criminal crimes, but some cases were dismissed, and a 2018 graft conviction remains under appeal.

— Reporting by Mikhail Flores; Editing by Michael Perry