Marcos Wants Ashes Taken Home

MANILA — Former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos said in an interview published Tuesday that if her husband dies outside his homeland, she will embalm his body until she can return to the Philippines and scatter his ashes there, as he desires.

Exiled ruler Ferdinand E. Marcos, 71, has been hospitalized in Honolulu since Jan. 15 for treatment of lung and respiratory ailments. Philippine President Corazon Aquino has rejected Marcos’ pleas to be allowed to die in his country, describing him as a national security risk.

In an interview in her Honolulu home, Imelda Marcos told the Manila newspaper Business World that her husband has expressed the wish that his body be cremated and his ashes scattered over the Philippines “to fertilize” his country.