Mrs Marcos stabbed; assailant killed

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33094, 8 December 1972, Page 14

Mrs Marcos stabbed; assailant killed

6V.Z. Preis Auociation—Copyright) MANILA, December 7. The Philippines’ First Lady, Mrs Imelda Marcos, was stabbed today by an unidentified man as she was handing out awards at an annual beautification contest.

Security guards shot and killed her assailant. Mrs Marcos, who is 42, was taken by helicopter from the Nayong amusement park to the Makati medical centre, about five miles away, for emergency treatment. There has been no news of her condition. The incident happened so quickly that Mrs Marcos’s guards were unable to stop the man, who was in the line of those she was congratulating. She had shaken hands with several award-winners when the assailant, next in line, suddenly pulled a knife from his belt and charged at her. He appeared to thrust the knife into her chest, but reports say that she is suffering from wounds to an arm and hand. Mr Ileana Maramag, a member of Mrs Marcos’s secretarial staff said that he thought the would-be assassin was carrying a bayonet. Witnesses screamed in horror as Mrs Marcos fell to the ground and the man appeared to follow her down. Mrs Marcos’s guards pulled him away, and shot him dead. The incident was seen live on television. A former “Miss Manila” beauty queen, Mrs Marcos has been a popular, and at time controversial, partner to President Marcos. Before the proclamation of martial law in September when the country was on the verge of political and criminal anarchy, many of Mrs Marcos's political critics alleged that she was planning to run for the Presidency in 1974 because, legally, Mr Marcos could not succeed

himself at the end of his second term of office. However, the elegant Mrs Marcos — often described by her husband as “my best representative, both at home and abroad” — denied the truth of any suggestion that she had her own political ambitions. All three children of Mr and Mrs Marcos—lmee, aged 17, Ferdinand, aged 14, and Irene, aged 11, are studying in England.