Never Ending GREED

Madame Imelda Marcos was seen weeping on national television. She feels victimized by our nation because she wants her jewelries back! Newsweek magazine named Imelda Romualdez Marcos, spouse of the late President Marcos, as one of the 11 greediest people of all time. Mrs. Marcos was notorious for spending $5 million on shopping sprees in New York City and Rome and for amassing the world’s largest collections of gems and about 3,000 pairs of shoes. The Burmese ruby was 150.1 carats and was valued at $290,000. Meanwhile, the diamond brooch, bracelet and earrings were priced at $1.4 million.

Previous reports said that for 19 years, the “Malacañang” and “Honolulu” collections were stored at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), while the Bureau of Customs stored the “Rou-meliotes,” said to be the most expensive jewelry collection of the former First Lady. Commissioner Ricardo Abcede recently announced that the agency was planning to auction off Marcos’s jewelry, which he estimated to be worth around P15 billion.

The Manila Times recently obtained a two-page letter dated June 4, 2009 in which then Justice Secretary Raul Gon­zalez oradered the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to return to Marcos the pieces of jewelry that were confiscated from her. In the letter, former DOJ Sec. Raul Gonzalez explained that his order to return the Marcos jewelry was based on the demand made by the former First Lady “for the immediate return of all her pieces of jewelry, which were: (1) taken by the PCGG from the Malacañang Palace during the 1986 EDSA incident; and (2) those turned-over to PCGG by the US Government.”

Indeed, all human suffering springs from unbridled desire. Unless one extricates oneself from the clutch of greed, one will not free himself from the fetters of sorrow.