Imelda Marcos, the former first lady forever associated with diamonds and a huge shoe collection, hit the campaign trail March 26 in a bid to re-enter the Philippine Congress in national elections May 10.

The 80-year-old Marcos led journalists at daybreak to the mausoleum of Ferdinand Marcos in his northern Philippine stronghold of Batac, where she kissed his glass coffin.

"This is one of our major injustices," she said, adding her victory would bring closer her dream of burying her husband in a heroes' cemetery in Manila. Such a move has been denied by successive governments since Marcos' death in U.S. exile in 1989, three years after his ouster in a "people power" revolt.