Bling it on: Philippines puts Marcos jewellery images online to teach about graft

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A Christie's auction house appraiser examines jewellery from the Marcos’ collection. Photo: AP

Published: 4:40pm, 28 Mar 2016Updated: 4:41pm, 28 Mar 2016

Philippine authorities are staging an online exhibition of jewellery owned by late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his family to try to educate a new generation about the corruption of that era.

The postings on Facebook and Twitter by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) come as the family tries to extend its political comeback in elections in May.

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“The PCGG will be posting selected jewellery items to show and remind the present generation of the excesses and extravagance of the Marcoses in their two-decade dictatorship,” the anti-corruption agency said on its website.

An official from the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) holding a diamond-studded piece of jewellery seized by the Philippine government from former first lady Imelda Marcos. Photo: AFP

“The Virtual Jewellery Exhibit” began in mid-March with regular postings showcasing valuables recovered after the dictator was ousted by a military-backed popular uprising in 1986.

Aside from pictures of the jewels uploaded regularly, there are postings explaining what they cost the country.

A picture of a diamond tiara comes with the caption: “can fund ... the treatment of 12,052 cases of tuberculosis”.