与菲律宾前第一夫人伊梅尔达共进午餐

    我很快就发现，伊梅尔达依然陶醉于她往昔的形象——一位富裕得令人难以置信的国际名人。她同时还认为，这种形象应该是一项让她的子民倍感自豪的资本。谈到高更的那幅油画时，她接连说出了一连串著名人物的名字。“这是阿莫德•哈默送我的礼物。是我把他介绍到中国的，他在那里完成了一个大型水电项目。”客厅一面墙壁上非常醒目地挂着一张毛泽东对她行吻手礼的大幅照片。伊梅尔达说：“毛泽东告诉我，他统一了一个国家，但不得不用枪杆子做到这一点，而我们用爱就把一个国家联合在了一起。”这是她经常讲述的众多轶事之一。

    我们其实吃了两顿午餐，因为伊梅尔达第二天邀请我重返她的公寓。第一顿饭是寿司，尤其令我印象深刻的是一瓶印有她个人照片的起泡红酒。第二顿是用一个转盘呈送上来的芝士汉堡和奶昔。第一次午餐后，她播放了一段1985年在克里姆林宫举行的前苏联领导人康斯坦丁•契尔年科的葬礼视频。一长排国家元首向戈尔巴乔夫致意，其中包括德国总理科尔和英国首相撒切尔夫人。“但我一直站在第一个！”伊梅尔达自豪地说。

    与女王阵势相伴的，是她母仪天下的一面——伊梅尔达力图把自己描绘为穷人和受压迫人民的守护者。宣扬这个讯息让她在政治上获得了成功。伊梅尔达目前正在履行第二个国会议员任期，代表的是其亡夫的家乡，菲律宾最重要的省份之一北伊罗戈省。在任这项职位期间，她已经在该地区建造了11座“慈母中心”。这些机构不仅派遣救护车救助生病的贫农，还提供就业辅导和法律咨询服务。她声称，这些设施是她自己出钱兴建的。在弗朗西斯科•塔塔德看来，这些慈母中心让人想起了伊梅尔达在担任第一夫人期间展现出来的创造力。塔塔德曾在菲律宾已故总统费迪南德•马科斯麾下担任过11年的公共信息部长，现在是一位著名的专栏作家和政治顾问。伊梅尔达曾经竭力推广菲律宾的土特产，而且她的推销方式极具原创性。一个星期天，塔塔德带我参观根据伊梅尔达的创意建造而成、目前作为副总统官邸的椰子宫( Coconut Palace)。他回忆说，居于幕后的伊梅尔达其实扮演着这项工程的“工头”角色，监督管理设计和施工的每一个细节。它的基本思路是，充分展示作为菲律宾主要农作物之一的椰子的多种用途。这栋宅邸的房间大多为六面形，柱子、装饰线条，百叶窗和家居都是用椰子木制作的。

    伊梅尔达仍然是菲律宾第二大政治家族的女族长，这个家族的政治影响力仅次于执政的阿基诺家族。现任总统阿基诺三世的祖父曾经是费迪南德•马科斯的盟友，随后成为他的死对头，最终遭到暗杀。这起暗杀事件引发的民众抗议促使费迪南德黯然下台。伊梅尔达的女儿目前担任北伊罗戈省省长。绰号为“邦邦”(Bongbong)的儿子小费迪南德现在是代表北伊罗戈省的参议员，他或许将在2016年大选中挑战阿基诺三世的总统宝座。她的侄子阿尔弗雷德•罗穆亚尔德斯现任塔克洛班市市长。塔克洛班市是超级台风海燕的重灾区，这场灾难已经重新点燃了阿基诺家族和马科斯-罗穆亚尔德斯家族之间的累世宿仇。前者声称市长的反应不称职，后者则宣称阿基诺三世完全是出于两大家族的政治对立，才迟迟不愿给予至关重要的救援。

    伊梅尔达的家人正在支持一项史诗般的能源事业。我们共进午餐期间，她不厌其烦地宣扬，事无巨细地聊者她的这项事业。她和她的支持者相信，菲律宾沿岸的深海海沟储藏着巨额重水资源——这种名为氘的化合物是由海底深处的巨大压力自然形成的。根据媒体的广泛报道，她正在筹集资金，以挖掘这种氘化物。在伊梅尔达看来，这种氘化物有望成为轿车和飞机的氢气动力。它不仅成本极低，而且没有任何污染。“它将拯救地球！”她宣称。

    It's immediately clear that Imelda still relishes her image as an incredibly wealthy international celebrity, and reckons that image should be a great source of pride for her people. When I mention the Gauguin, the parade of famous names begins. "It was a present from Armand Hammer. I introduced him to China, where he did a big hydroelectric project." A large photo of Mao Tse-Tung kissing her hand dominates a living room wall. "Mao told me that he'd united a country, but had to do it with guns, and that we'd united a country with love," says Imelda, unfurling one of the many anecdotes she repeats frequently.

    We actually had lunch twice, since she invited me back the next day. The first meal was sushi, the second cheeseburgers served on a lazy susan turntable with milk shakes. After the first lunch, which featured a red sparkling wine with her photo on the bottle, she showed a video of Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko's funeral in the Kremlin in 1985. A long line of heads of state greet Mikhail Gorbachev, among them Helmut Kohl of Germany and Margaret Thatcher of the U.K., "but I was always first in line!" boasts Imelda.

    Along with the regal side comes the mothering -- Imelda strives to portray herself as a champion of the poor and downtrodden. She's a success in politics selling that message. Imelda is now serving a second term as a congresswoman from Ilocos Norte, her late husband's province, and one of the nation's most important. In that role, she has built 11 "Mothering Centers" in the region, facilities that dispatch ambulances to rescue poor farmers who fall ill, and provide job counseling and legal advice. And she claims to be funding the centers with her own money. The Mothering Centers, says Francisco "Kit" Tatad, the Minister of Public Information for 11 years under the late Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, and now a prominent columnist and political advisor, are a reminder of the creativity Imelda displayed as First Lady. She strove to promote the nation's native products, and found extremely original ways to do it. Tatad took me on a Sunday tour of the Coconut Palace, an Imelda creation that is currently the workplace for the Vice President. He recalls that Imelda virtually served as "foreman" on the project, supervising every detail of design and construction. The idea was to show the versatility of one of the nation's leading agricultural crops. The entire mansion, consisting mainly of six-side rooms, is made from coconut wood, including the columns, moldings, shutters, even the furniture.

    Imelda remains matriarch of the second most powerful political clan in the country to the reigning Aquinos, led by president Benigno Aquino III, whose grandfather was once Ferdinand Marcos's ally, then his rival, and whose assassination unleashed the popular protest that deposed Ferdinand. Her daughter Imee Marcos is the governor of Ilocos Norte. Her son Ferdinand, Jr., nicknamed "Bongbong," is a senator from the home province and a probable candidate to challenge Aquino in 2016. Her nephew, Alfred Romauldez, is the mayor of Tacloban, the city hardest hit by typhoon Yolanda. The disaster has ignited a new feud between the Aquino and Marcos-Romauldez dynasties, with the former claiming the mayor's response is incompetent, and the latter alleging that Aquino is withholding crucial support because of the clans' political rivalry.

    Imelda's family is standing behind a typically epic energy venture that she is tirelessly promoting and spoke about extensively during our lunches. She and her backers are convinced that the deep ocean trenches off the coast of the Philippines contain gigantic reserves of heavy water -- a compound called deuterium -- that is naturally created by the immense pressure at the depths of the ocean floor. It's been extensively reported that she's attempting to raise money to mine that deuterium, which would emerge as hydrogen gas to power cars and airplanes at extremely low cost, with zero pollution. "It will save the planet!" she declares.