In front of the mansion that Imelda Marcos built to store the glittering keepsakes of her life, workmen were slowly clearing the debris and sweeping away mounds of mud.
The flamboyant former first lady built the salmon-coloured Santo Nino shrine and museum in the town in which she grew up to house the gifts and souvenirs accumulated during the two-decade rule of her late husband, Ferdinand Marcos.
Now, it stands locked and forlorn, badly damaged when Typhoon Haiyan tore through the eastern Philippines.
Reports suggest the 84-year-old - who was put in hospital this month for exhaustion and diabetes - has not been told about the damage out of concern it would further upset her.
The legacy of Marcos and her husband remains deeply controversial in the Philippines. After a two-decade dictatorial rule marked by human rights abuses and corruption, a popular uprising forced the couple into exile in Hawaii in 1986, where the former President died three years later.