Former First Lady Imelda R. Marcos celebrates her 80th birth anniversary Thursday.

The celebration actually started last night with an “asalto” by her relatives, friends, and supporters in the Marcos ancestral home in San Juan City, according to sources close to Mrs. Marcos.

A mass in honor of Mrs. Marcos who served as governor of Metropolitan Manila and Minister of the Ministry of Human Settlements was also to be held last night and Thursday.

The celebration will be capped with a program tonight at the grand ballroom of the Sofitel Hotel, overlooking her projects like the Coconut Palace, the Philippine International Convention Center, Folk Arts Theater, and the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Singer-composer Anthony Castelo who planed in from Los Angeles, California said tonight’s party is organized by loyal friends and supporters of Mrs. Marcos and those she had helped, including artists, during the Marcos administration.

The party will be highlighted by a video presentation on the life and times of Mrs. Marcos, the singing of her favorite songs like, “Dahil Sa Iyo,” by Filipino artists like Castelo and others who she had assisted while First Lady of the land.

Expected at the party are her children, Rep. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., Ma. Imelda “Imee” Marcos, and Irene Marcos Araneta and grandchildren, other relatives.

Invited also to the event are ambassadors and members of the diplomatic corps, businessmen, and government and private sector leaders.

Mrs. Marcos served as first lady of President Ferdinand Marcos for 20 years during which she initiated projects, programs, and services some which made her controversial but well loved by the people.

She will also be remembered for the expensive jewelry and 1,220 pairs of shoes she left behind in Malacanang after the "people power" revolt that toppled the Marcos regime in 1986 and forced them into exile in Hawaii.

Marcos died in Hawaii in 1989 and Mrs. Marcos was allowed to return home in 1991. In 1995, she won a congressional seat in her home province in Leyte. Prior to that in 1992, she ran for president but lost to her husband’s cousin, Fidel V. Ramos.

Mrs. Marcos was a beauty queen in Leyte and later joined the Miss Manila pageant where then Senator Marcos met her. It was followed by a whirlwind courtship that ended in their wedding.