Imelda's shoe collection survives flood: curator

MANILA (AFP) – A museum guard's quick work saved part of former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos's famous shoe collection when huge floods devastated the nation's capital, its elderly curator said Thursday.

The security man moved some of the 200 pairs on display at the Marikina Shoe Museum on the eastern outskirts of Manila upstairs just before water swamped the ground floor, curator Sylvia de la Cruz told AFP.

The Marikina museum showcases the Marcos collection and an assortment of other footwear worn by former Philippine presidents, senators and ambassadors.

"We managed to haul about 750 pairs upstairs," said 73-year-old de la Cruz, adding they had yet to make a full account on how many of those were Marcos's.

Marikina, the Philippines' shoe production capital, was among the hardest hit areas when Tropical Storm Ketsana dumped record rains in and around Manila on September 26, killing nearly 300 people.

Marcos's shoe collection has become one of the most notorious symbols of the life of luxury and excess she enjoyed during the 20-year reign of her dictator husband, Ferdinand MarcosFerdinand Marcos.

About 3,000 pairs of shoes were discovered in her quarters at the Malacanang presidential palace after she and her husband fled to US exile amid a bloodless "people power" revolt that ended Marcos rule in 1986.

The former first lady, who returned to the Philippines shortly after her husband died in Hawaii in 1991, has long maintained that she collected so many shoes partly to promote the Marikina industry