Let’s take a breather from scandalous affairs of the political nature. You may have forgotten that Imee Marcos was once married to the tall, dark and handsome Tommy Manotoc: multi-titled professional basketball coach, talented amateur golfer, father of club-scene enfant terrible Borgy, and… mysterious kidnap victim. In early 1982, Tomas “Tommy” Manotoc was kept blindfolded for 41 days as a captive of the NPA. The leftist rebels reportedly asked for a 29 million peso ransom and demanded the release of communist leaders Joma Sison, Satur Ocampo and Bernabe Buscayno among others. At least that was what Manotoc told a press conference in February 1982 after he was “rescued” by government agents. The press conference was facilitated by then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile (you know where the truth is headed in this one). The Tommy Manotoc-Imee Marcos affair played too much like a tele-novela that it was as surreal as that press conference (I remember the live telecast where Manotoc was escorted into the Malacanang press room looking anxious but not at all haggard and for a total “kidnapped” look, he sported a thick beard).
Tommy and Imee met in early 1981 through a mutual friend. It was reportedly love at first sight. And though Manotoc was already divorced from his first wife, beauty queen Aurora Pijuan, the divorce was not recognized in Catholic Philippines. But more importantly the relationship with the high profile Imee was frowned upon by by Imee’s parents: Ferdie and Meldy. Ferdinand was not too pleased because the Manotoc family was related to very prominent exiled political opponents: Raul Manglapus and Eugenio Lopez. Imelda, on the other hand, had more pompous reasons: she was Maharlika’s queen after all and if Imelda thought she was royalty, then her children deserved no less. Everyone in the circle of her “Blue Ladies” knew that Imelda was still salivating from the wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles. She was maneuvering for a match up with one of Antonio Floirendo’s sons since Prince Charles had already been taken. But Imee and Tommy eloped. They secretly got married in Arlington Virginia on December 4, 1981. The two flew back to Manila and that’s when the drama pushed full throttle. On the night of December 29, 1981, as Tommy Manotoc was driving back to his house in San Lorenzo Village Makati, his car was rear ended. Armed men jumped out, pistol-whipped Manotoc, dragged him into their car and drove away. Tommy Manotoc was kidnapped. The following day, a furious Imee confronted her father and asked if he had anything to do with the disappearance. The Apo reportedly just kept silent. The incident went unreported for several days until foreign correspondents got hold of a marriage certificate of Imee and Tommy. The story of the marriage and the mysterious disappearance of Manotoc broke but after a few more weeks, no other details of the disappearance came out. Then the family of Manotoc received a first ransom note, supposedly handwritten by Tommy. The note said that he was being held by the NPA led by one Kumander Ulupong but Ricardo Manotoc, Tommy’s father, thought the note was fake saying that the handwriting on the note wasn’t Tommy’s. Ricardo publicly accused Ferdinand Marcos of involvement in the kidnapping (brave guy this Ricardo!). Through the Marcos controlled press, Ferdinand expressed concern about the kidnapping but did not say anything about Tommy Manotoc’s relationship with her daughter. The more vocal Imelda, suggested that ”If they really think the President is involved, they should be coming to him on bended knee to beg for their son’s life.” She also said that if Tommy Manotoc were killed, she would resign from all her public posts. Referring to her would be son-in-law as “that son of a bitch”, she said in private that it wasn’t worth risking a single life to save the man that married her daughter.
Over a month after the news of the Tommy Manotoc’s disappearance broke, the charade was finally over. News was leaked to the press that government agents had an “encounter” with communist rebels in the Sierra Madre mountains and that they had “rescued” Tommy Manotoc. A day before Valentine’s, the bearded Tommy Manotoc was presented to the press. During the orchestrated news conference, the smiling Manotoc gave very vague comments and seemed to have heard very little from his captors and remembered even less. He apologized for his family’s insinuations that the president was involved in the kidnapping. Many Metro Manila residents anyway were very skeptical, in part because Imee was seen around town laughing and smiling during her husband’s absence. The government said that all of Manotoc’s captors had escaped except for one man who was killed. He was never identified. Tommy and Imee separated in 1999.
Source: http://indiosbravos.blog.com/2011/04/30/recyclablog-8-the-tomas-imee-affairgone-baby-gone/
