BY JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR
DEPUTY presidential spokesman Anthony Golez
yesterday assailed Bukidnon Rep. Teofisto Guingona III for
saying that President Arroyo should be included in the list of
the greediest people of all time.
"Respetuhin natin dahil presidente ng bansa
ang tinuturo niya," he said.
Reports quoted Guingona, deputy House
minority leader, as saying that Arroyo should also be included
in the list of the "greediest people of all time," which came
out in Newsweek magazine last week.
Newsweek magazine included Imelda Marcos in
the list.
According to Newsweek, Marcos "saw it as her
duty to provide ‘some kind of light, a star’ for the
impoverished Filipino people over whom her husband presided."
"So she took $5 million shopping sprees to
New York and Rome, reportedly owned the world’s largest
collections of gems and 3,000 pairs of shoes," the magazine
said.
The term "Imeldific" eventually was coined to
refer to Mrs. Marcos’ lavish lifestyle. The word has since
gained acceptance as a synonym for "ostentatiously extravagant."
Another woman, China’s Empress Dowager Cixi,
made it to Newsweek’s list.
Newsweek noted that the Chinese empress had
3,000 jewelry boxes. She even used the navy’s money to "build
herself a marble banquet boat, aboard which she ate 150-dish
dinners with golden chopsticks."
The others are Genghis Khan, Pope Sixtus IV,
Bernard Madoff, Roman general Marcus Licinius Crassus,
industrialist William H. Vanderbilt, American politician William
M. "Boss" Tweed, swindler Charles Ponzi, Wall Street arbitrageur
Ivan Boesky, and former Tyco International chief executive
officer Dennis Kozlowski.
