The secrets of the Malacañan Palace as told by someone who grew up there
WALA LANG
…‘mid pleasures and palaces, though not many can think of a palace as home. Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. is one of the few who can. His family moved there when he was eight years old and there he stayed in the next 20 years, until 1986 when the family was taken to exile.
Now the President of the Philippines, PBBM agreed to take producer and vlogger Toni Gonzaga on a tour of his childhood home. As legislator and as provincial governor, he was invited to the palace a couple of times including the state dinner when US President Barack Obama visited in 2014. The tour with Gonzaga, however, was the first time he was making a complete round since he left in 1986. He said had been so busy from the day he moved in as President.
HALL OF SECRETS President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. takes Toni Gonzaga on a tour of Malacañan Palace
From the grand Reception Hall hung with President Quezon’s three gigantic chandeliers and surrounded by portraits of all 17 Philippine Presidents, PBBM and Gonzaga proceeded to the former family quarters, passing the corridor overlooking an interior courtyard with a noisily splashing fountain.
First stop was PBBM’s old room, now a conference room. “My bed was there,” he said, “and there was a desk here.” Walking on, Gonzaga asked if he ever was grounded and PBBM replied yes, recounting one evening when he was sneaking via the palace side stairs only to see both parents standing above, arms crossed and demanding to know where he had been. “Patay,” he said to himself and in fact it was a week before he was allowed out again.
They proceeded to the old rooms of the President’s sisters Imee and Irene who shared an ante-room. A photo shows Imee reading on an antique four-poster bed. Resuming his running commentary, PBBM recalled how the three of them stuck together as the only children in the palace and how they would invite friends to sleep over.
LONG TABLE The Aguinaldo State Dining Room, where most conferences of the Philippine Presidents are held
Next on the route was the family’s private dining room, beyond which was a kitchen (now with book-filled shelves), “where Mom used to cook.” Asked what his father’s favorite ulam was, PBBM answered with a chuckle, dinengdeng and pakbet. Next to it, a previous prayer room, was the office of presidential assistant Juan Ponce Enrile, secretary of National Defense under Marcos Senior. They walked in to say hello and met JPE’s daughter Katrina, who happened to be there.
The bedroom of former first lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos followed. Gonzaga asked if that was where FL’s reported 3,000 shoes were and PBBM explained that she never wore any of those shoes but were displayed elsewhere as proud products of Marikina shoemakers given to her as gifts when new models came out. PBBM pointed to where her bed was and to a grand piano that has remained in place “maybe because it was too big to move out.”
OFFICE FOR TWO DECADES Office of the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos, now called the study room
Gonzaga asked if it was true that palace staff had brought paintings home when the Marcoses left. PBBM replied that indeed, loyal retainers brought to safety not only paintings but also small things that they knew the Marcoses liked and admired and which they returned when the Marcoses came back.
Gonzaga remarked how Mrs. Marcos’ iconic hair style was always just so, not a strand out of place. PBBM nodded, saying she could fix her hair in five minutes, adding that her hair was “up to here,” gesturing down to his thigh.
The next room was President Marcos Senior’s bedroom. Gonzaga queried, “They had separate rooms?” PBBM answered, “Yes because they had different schedules, Mom would stay up till the wee hours inspecting projects or talking to people.”
The former Presidential bedroom was huge. Now it is partitioned in two. It is now PBBM’s office and reception area. He pointed to the photographs on the credenza behind his simple desk saying that “Liza decorated this with old and new photographs.” PBBM recalled that his father disliked clutter and the enormous room only had a bed and a desk.
From the former private quarters, PBBM and Gonzaga returned to the state apartments. First was the music room, formerly the receiving room of Mrs. Imelda Marcos. Now little more than a plain reception room, it used to have musical instruments, Luna’s painting La Bulaquena, and a marble table inlaid with figures of musical instruments. “We used to rehearse our numbers here when asked to perform at family gatherings,” volunteered PBBM. Second was the study room, which was Marcos Senior’s office for two decades, furnished with the desk and chairs used by Marcos Senior. “We found them in a bodega,” said PBBM.
WAR ROOM East room, where General Fabian Ver and former President Ferdinand E. Marcos would discuss military affairs. The hall is also where President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. learned Judo in his youth
From the state dining room, now where the Cabinet meets, a narrow passage leads to the palace kitchen downstairs and to the former family dining room. “As kids, this was where we loved to explore. Off that are the two palace guest suites, “the two most haunted rooms,” said PBBM. “Things move, doors open and close. Once I had to sleep here because my bedroom was being repaired. It was about 2 a.m. and I was going to bed. The door opened even before I touched it!”
Back at the reception hall, PBBM recalled how it was in February 1986. He points to where FM Senior was sitting at a small desk and to its side. “General Ver was here, saying, ‘Sir, they are surrounded, the tanks are in place, we are ready to shoot.’ I was there . My father raised his voice saying, ’No, no, hold on. My order is to disperse the crowd without shooting them.”
Leading Gonzaga toward the ceremonial stairs, PBBM paused at the center of the reception hall. “This is where I learned judo,” he said. “The tatami mat had not arrived and this carpet substituted.”
Just before making their way down, Gonzaga asked about the June 30 conversation between outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte and PBBM, who had just taken his oath of office. It went something like this: PBBM, “Naku hinintay pa ninyo ako,” PD30: “Dapat naman, Presidente ka na, kailangan salubungin kita. At saka hindi ko tatangalin itong maskara na ito. You’re the President, I have to protect you.”
Note: Toni Gonzaga is former lead host of the long-running reality show Pinoy Big Brother. The described in this column is on YouTube, “The Malacañang Tour/ Toni Talks.”
Comments are cordially invited, addressed to [email protected].