page_title: Imelda Marcos
section_title: The 1965 presidential campaign
hierarchical_section_title: Imelda Marcos / The 1965 presidential campaign
caption_attribution_description: English: First inauguration of President Ferdinand Marcos held at the Quirino Grandstand, Manila, December 30, 1965.
context_page_description: Imelda Romualdez Marcos is a Filipino politician and convicted criminal who was First Lady of the Philippines for 21 years, during which she and her husband illegally amassed a multi-billion US Dollar personal fortune.
  She married Ferdinand Marcos in 1954 and became First Lady in 1965 when he became President of the Philippines. During her term, she initiated numerous grand architectural projects using public funds that are today referred to as an edifice complex.
  The People Power Revolution in February 1986 unseated the Marcoses and forced the family into exile. In 1991, President Corazon Aquino allowed the Marcos family to return to the Philippines after the 1989 death of Ferdinand Marcos. Imelda Marcos was elected four times to the House of Representatives of the Philippines, and ran twice for the presidency of the Philippines.
  She and her family gained notoriety for living a lavish lifestyle during a period of economic crisis and civil unrest in the country. She spent much of her time abroad on state visits, extravagant parties, and shopping sprees, and spent much of the State's money on her personal jewelry and shoe collections.
context_section_description: It was during the 1965 campaign that Imelda became influential as a political figure at the national level,  supporting her husband’s political tactics through her charismatic appeal and youth. Crowds of working class Filipinos came out in droves to Marcos campaigns because they wanted to see the “beautiful wife of Marcos” 
  Campaign strategists incorporated Imelda’s public appeal into the overall tone of the Marcos-led Nacionalista campaign, asking Imelda to always appear at her best in public at all times regardless of the type of audience, and encouraging her to wear her signature ternos as integral part of their image strategy. 
  Marcos heavily relied on Imelda, eventually telling the press at one point that it was Imelda who had delivered the one million vote margin he needed to win the election.
  It was in this period that Imelda described herself -  a neophyte transitioning into a true political partner to her husband – as "a butterfly breaking out of its cocoon" This led one foreign journalist to call her as "the iron butterfly."
  Imelda had assumed a managerial position in her husband's campaign early on, when Marcos faced his first challenge of the campaign, which was to win the presidential candidacy for the Nacionalista Party. She enthusiastically ran a detailed campaign, befriending the 1,347 delegates of the Nacionalista Party Convention until Ferdinand Marcos won the party’s presidential nomination on November 21, 1964, for the Nacionalista Party.
  McCoy recounts that it was supposedly also Imelda who convinced Fernando Lopez to accept the vice-presidential nomination alongside Marcos. She met Lopez personally, appealing to him by recounting the many struggles she and Ferdinand faced during the campaign.  Lopez refused to give in multiple times, until Imelda cried in front of him. When he relented, Imelda proceeded to hand a document to sign, stating that he had accepted the nomination as the Nacionalista vice-presidential candidate. 
  During the presidential election itself, she delivered votes from the southern province of Leyte, and Manila. She was especially popular with the poor.  Imelda also used her voice to appeal to voters, singing during campaigns. Her songs are usually varieties of local folk songs.
caption: Imelda Romualdez-Marcos with former President Ferdinand Marcos and family during the 1965 inauguration
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