TACLOBAN CITY- Aside from poor health, the other reason why former first lady and now Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos appears not liking to visit her home province of Leyte is due to her ‘depression’ on what happened to Olot Mansion located in Tolosa town.
This was revealed by her elder daughter, Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos who was in the city Tuesday(April 17) for an speaking engagement.
The young Marcos said that to help their mother somehow overcome her sadness, they will do something about the 42-hectare beach front property.
“She is not happy to travel these days because her left knee is really bothering her and she does not like to use a wheelchair. I think, she’s also a little bit depressed kasi yung Olot, there has nothing left. So we have to do something for her para mawala ang kanyang lungkot sa Olot,” The Ilocos Norte governor told members of the media during a press conference held at the VIP Lounge of the Daniel Z. Romualdez (DZR) Airport, here.
The structures inside the sprawling property located in Barangay Olot, Tolosa town, were totally destroyed when super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ hit Leyte on November 8, 2013.
The property consisted of a seven-room residential mansion;14-room guest mansion; a pavilion which could accommodate 1,000 people and a nine-hole golf course designed by legendary Jack Nicklaus.
Also washed out by Yolanda were several fabulous gowns and signature shoes of the former first lady and silver wares and some paintings.
The last time the Marcos widow visited Leyte was on November 8, 2014, the first year anniversary of Yolanda’s onslaught.
She did not visit the property though her children, Bongbong and Imee, went there.
Asked what exactly the plan of the family about the destroyed property, Gov. Marcos declined to say.
“We’ll talk about it but we’re not quite certain (on what to do). So we’ll not reveal,” she said.
The property was among the sequestered properties of the Marcoses in Leyte.
But sometimes in 2008, the Supreme Court issued an order allowing Marcos to retake the property.
The Romualdezes traces their roots at Tolosa, a sleepy town more than 20 kms away from Tacloban City, where the family continue to yield political clout. (JOEY A. GABIETA)
