Imelda Marcos arrest ordered

Marcos family lawyers say their client will post bail to avoid being jailed

MANILA, The Philippines -- A court in the Philippines has ordered the arrest of Imelda Marcos, the flamboyant widow of former president Ferdinand Marcos, on charges of corruption.

The arrest warrant issued Tuesday by the main Sandiganbayan anti-graft court in Manila covered four charges of amassing illegal wealth during her husband's rule.

Her lawyers have told officials that she will travel to the court voluntarily later Tuesday and post bail of some $2,400 to avoid being jailed.

She will however have to be photographed and fingerprinted first.

According to court documents Marcos is accused of setting up secret accounts in Swiss banks which were used to hide the family's allegedly illegal fortune.

The arrest order said the accounts were set up "for the benefit of the accused and her late husband, then-president Ferdinand Marcos and their children, with monies amounting to $231,366,894 as of 31 December, 1989."

Marcos has repeatedly denied charges that she and her family amassed any illegal gains during her husband's presidency, saying he was a wealthy man well before taking public office.

People power

Imelda Marcos is famous for her massive shoe collection

Ferdinand Marcos ruled the Philippines with an iron hand for 20 years until he was finally ousted in the 1986 "people power" revolt and driven into exile.

He died in Hawaii in 1989 and his wife returned to the Philippines the following year where she launched two failed attempts at the presidency.

In the mid-1990s she was convicted of graft in a separate corruption case and sentenced to a minimum 12 years imprisonment.

But on appeal to the Supreme Court that conviction was overturned and she was acquitted.

Mrs Marcos is perhaps most famous for her massive collection of more than 1,000 shoes discovered in the presidential palace after she and her husband had fled the country.

Critics have condemned her for such lavish expenditure when much of the country was living in poverty, but she has defended herself saying her purchases were intended to show her support for the Philippine shoe industry.