Marcos barred from attending Reagan's funeral

Imelda Marcos has been banned from attending the funeral of former US President Ronald Reagan by a Philippine court.

Mrs Marcos – who is facing a string of corruption cases and needs court approval to travel abroad – claimed to be a ”a close and loyal friend” of Reagan and said she had been invited by telephone to attend the funeral.

Mrs Marcos, 74, widow of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, appealed to the court for permission to travel overseas to attend the service on Friday, but her request was denied because she did not have a formal invitation, the court said in a resolution.

Mrs Marcos has extolled Reagan as a great US president who opposed her husband’s 1986 overthrow by an army-backed “people power” revolt.

She laid flowers in front of the US Embassy over the weekend, and recalled that during her family’s exile in Hawaii, Reagan and his wife Nancy “called several times sincerely concerned of what happened to us and even made it known that he was against what the bureaucrats did to the Marcoses.”

Ferdinand Marcos died in Hawaii in 1989. His successor, Corazon Aquino, accused him of stealing billions of dollars and ordered many of his assets seized.