The Philippines: Family Feud

The Montagues and Capulets

There were no new ransom notes last week in the mysterious disappearance and presumed kidnaping on Dec. 29 of Tomas (“Tommy”) Manotoc, 32, the divorced golf champion who had secretly wed the daughter of President Ferdinand Marcos. But accusations, recriminations and rumors in the strange affair continued to damage the Marcos family.

Against the wishes of the President and his wife Imelda, Manotoc had married Maria Imelda (“Imee”) Marcos, 26, a law student at the University of the Philippines, on Dec. 4 in Arlington, Va. Although a ransom note had offered to release Manotoc for $2.5 million and freedom for four Communists, the Manotoc family believed it to be a fake. They accused the Marcoses of being behind the kidnaping. The Marcoses, in turn, blamed a conspiracy between the Manotocs and anti-Marcos opposition groups. Since then, the two families have been feuding like the Montagues and the Capulets.

There was speculation last week, even within the President’s entourage, that the Marcoses knew a great deal more about the event than they had admitted. One aide to the President told TIME that his list of those responsible for Manotoc’s disappearance began with the First Lady, who had conceded that she was bitterly opposed to the marriage. Some Western diplomats in Manila suspect that aides close to Mrs. Marcos may have taken too literally her expressed desire to be rid of the problem posed by Manotoc.

Meanwhile, the Marcoses mounted a smear campaign against the Manotoc family in the government-controlled press. Dailies ran a story in which Mrs. Marcos accused Manotoc of inveigling Imee into marriage and describing her daughter as having “the mind of a 40-year-old but the heart of a ten-year-old.”

A week before Manotoc disappeared, he had met with President Marcos to discuss the “family” problem. Marcos, who had been reading Manotoc’s tax return, suggested that Manotoc could not support his daughter properly. The President reportedly promised to try to arrange some business deals. But next day, Manotoc was pessimistic. He told a friend: “I don’t think this is going to work.”

Manotoc also talked of going abroad with his bride until things cleared up, thus suggesting the possibility that he may have slipped away with the hope of later rendezvousing with Imee. But that conjecture disregarded the firm conviction on the part of his family that he had been kidnaped. As for Imee, she was dining out in fashionable restaurants, but friends said she was a “good actress” who was concealing her unhappiness.