‘Opposite of What a Woman Should Be’ : Imelda Marcos Says Aquino Is ‘Obsessed’

MANILA —  First Lady Imelda Marcos charged Wednesday that presidential candidate Corazon Aquino is “obsessed,” “ambitious” and “the complete opposite of what a woman should be” in her bid to unseat President Ferdinand E. Marcos in next month’s election.

Describing herself as “a housekeeper,” Imelda Marcos--a highly visible figure on the campaign trail who also holds the appointive posts of governor of metropolitan Manila and national minister of human settlements--said Aquino’s candidacy is “shocking” in the context of a woman’s role in the Philippines.

‘Their Place at Home’

“I am very well aware of my role as a woman,” she told three American journalists over coffee Wednesday morning, in her first private interview since she and her husband began campaigning last month. “Women have their place somehow at home.”

Women, she added, are incapable of holding political office.

Marcos himself has said in speeches on the campaign trail that a woman’s place is “in the bedroom.”

Explaining how she herself has not violated the woman’s role, Imelda Marcos said, “Being governor of Manila is housekeeping . . . but when you start interacting with your neighbors and the world, that’s a different situation.”

Asked whether she ever plans to run for president herself, Imelda Marcos said, “No, no. I’m not the best, and the Filipino people deserve only the best.” She also denied persistent rumors that she will be substituted at the last minute as a candidate for president or vice president in the Feb. 7 election.

In the Philippines, she said, “Power is always the man. Power and strength is man. Beauty, inspiration, love is woman.”

When asked to elaborate, Imelda Marcos added, “Beauty is love made real, and the spirit of love is God. And the state of beauty, love and God is happiness. A transcendent state of beauty, love and God is peace. Peace and God is a state of beauty, love and God. Peace and happiness is a state of beauty, love and God. . . .

“This is what we women have to bring about--to bring peace, bring order, bring harmony, bring discipline.”

Throughout her presidential campaign, Aquino--who blames Marcos for the 1983 assassination of her husband, opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr.--has said she is trying to bring peace, order and harmony to the Philippines, which is beset by a bloody and burgeoning Communist insurgency.

Calls Aquino a Front

“How can she do it?” Imelda Marcos asked. She said that only her husband has been capable of putting down three violent rebellions during his 20 years in power, and she charged that Aquino, rather than being a fighter against the insurgents, is a mere front for the Communist Party of the Philippines and its military wing, the New People’s Army.

Imelda Marcos charged that Aquino “has the courage” to run for the presidency “because she has the knowledge of her backers, her strong backers--those who believe that power comes from the barrel of the gun.”

The election, she added, “has become an ideological struggle, and that’s what’s so terrifying. It’s a fight against communism.”

Asked how she would fight the Communist rebellion, now being waged against an estimated 15,000 armed insurgents in all 73 Philippine provinces, Marcos quoted a line from the theme song of the movie “Ghostbusters.”

“There’s something wrong in the neighborhood; who we gonna’ call? The ghost busters.

“And we need a ghost buster . . . a Communist buster.”

Imelda Marcos charged that Aquino’s supporters are exploiting another ghost--that of Aquino’s slain husband--to get votes, and that Aquino’s use of prayers and hymns during her rallies is “packaging.”

Marcos and Lincoln

In describing her husband’s approach to combatting the current Communist uprising, Imelda Marcos insisted that the government is using military force only defensively, and she defended her husband for his earlier campaigns against Philippine secessionist movements.

Marcos’ approach, she indicated, was more democratic and peaceful than that of Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War.

On the subject of the health of her 68-year-old husband, who is believed to be suffering from a chronic and cyclical kidney ailment, Imelda Marcos denied recent intelligence reports from Washington that he has taken a turn for the worse.

“You must remember, the president just recovered last year, and thank God he is up and about now,” she said, “He is very well. He is completely recovered, and he is not sick of anything incurable.” She refused, however, to specify what it was that the president had recovered from.

Imelda Marcos also denied persistent reports that she and her husband and friends have funneled millions of dollars of national assets into private holdings in America and elsewhere abroad, charges that have led to a House subcommittee investigation in Washington.

Referring to the congressional inquiry, she added, “The things that have been done to this country are not to be believed--what we have to go through and what we have to take from our allies and friends.”