Fenton Bailey reports from Manila:

Before 9/11 was 9/11, it was also the birthday of Ferdinand Marcos.Today he would have been 88 years old, which Imelda – who is a sprightly and high-energy 77 – sees as especially symbolic, since the figure 8 represents infinity and 88 is obviously a double dose.

The day before the celebrations, Marcos loyalists decked out in red T-shirts, gathered in a park in waterfront Manila before boarding a fleet of buses that would drive them 12 hours north to Ferdinand Marcos’ hometown province of Ilocos Norte in the Philippines. The next day, Monday, they were in church as Madame attended mass and then a local procession. The day was a public holiday and everywhere she went she was mobbed.

After Mass, Madame visited the embalmed body of Ferdinand and then we rode with armed guards to a private hillside plot where she eventually plans to bury her husband – and join him when the time is right.

– Fenton Bailey