Presidents’ dangerous liaisons

Swirling around the White House is a scandal named Stormy Daniels, a stripper and award-winning porn star who claimed to have had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006. This and the graphic description of Trump’s equipment would not merit front-page news until The Wall Street Journal broke the news last January, that Trump’s lawyer, shortly before the US presidential election paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet. Issue is whether the hush money formed part of expenses or contributions to the Trump campaign. Trump’s problem reminds us of Dovie Beams (also spelled as Boehms) who has four B-movies on record: “Wild Wheels” (1969), “Maharlika” (1970), “Guns of a Stranger” (1973), and “The Kentucky Fried Movie” (1977). Not remembered for her forgettable films, her fame rests on her claim of an affair with Ferdinand Marcos from 1968 to 1970. She had audio sex tapes to prove it. Marcos, in his diaries, denied the allegations and cried blackmail.

On Monday Oct. 19, 1970, a day after Floro S. Crisologo was shot in the head after receiving communion at the Vigan Cathedral, Marcos wrote:

“Many ladies have claimed the dubious honor of being my girl friends. But the most obnoxious is a Dovie Boehms, the leading lady in ‘Maharlika,’ a film supposedly based on the war exploits of Lawin, alias, Ferdinand Marcos. I met her or she was introduced to me during the Famas Festival last year. She has come back and insisted with the Press Office (Larry Cruz) and Appointments Secretary that she be allowed to see me. I refused. My instincts were right. She is a name dropper. She approached Imelda [at] the Tourism conference and program at Hilton where she stays and proudly announced that she knew her (Imelda’s) husband. Imelda properly ignored her. But over TV and in interviews with newspapermen, she insinuates that she has been my inamorata! And I have not even seen her on this trip of hers. The only time I saw her was during the casual introduction last year. How the media can indeed swallow a story that appeals to the morbid curiosity of men!”

A month later, Nov. 10, 1970, after noting that he had cast his vote in Batac, Ilocos Norte, he wrote:

“I am being blackmailed by a Dovie Boehms who has called a press conference at 6 p.m. and said she was my mistress. A damned lie! Some time ago she threatened that if she was not paid a big sum of money, she would scandalize me and spread all forms of lies about me. A diabolical plot. But what a well-prepared one it is. And we are impotent to do anything as this woman wants publicity. If we file a libel or blackmail case, she will just thrive in it. And it will blow up the whole thing into an international affair and fair game for everyone. But if we do not do anything, everyone will believe her stories.”

Marcos noted: “I attach all the papers — including pictures which show the extortion.” Unfortunately, these addenda are not with available copies of the diaries. Next day, Nov. 11, 1970, Marcos wrote:

“The USVA board of directors are agitated by the statements and press releases of this blackmailer, Dovie Boehms. They are willing to pay her what she wants but I have refused to do anything with them. I intend to ignore her. This is a matter of principle. But we must investigate if there is some other person behind the plot. Some quarters suggest the CIA or the American Embassy because it comes after the Holman case, my demand that the US return Sangley Point, my stand on the nonnegotiation of parity, my directing [Secretary] Alex Melchor to visit India and Moscow, as well as the new policy of trade with Socialist countries. Again it may be my political opponents who are encouraging this or have planted her.

“But Imelda has resolutely stood by me and this has increased my admiration for her. I am sure she has doubts as to whether I have been faithful to her but she can smell blackmail and is quietly helping out — no hysterics, no crying — just determined loyalty. And she is not wrong. For I have been faithful to her. And I have not known this woman Dovie Boehms. I met her twice or thrice—all formal occasions. She was at the Famas Awards, then she was with the cast of ‘Maharlika’ which was introduced to me and then she visited the Palace with some other tourists. That is all.”

Classic he-said, she-said story.

Comments are welcome at aocampo@ateneo.edu