To mark 150th year, Malacañang invites personal, online visits

MANILA, Philippines—Book a tour or visit online.

Secretary Edwin Lacierda on Monday exhorted Filipinos to get reacquainted with Malacañang, which marks its 150th anniversary as the official residence of the country’s Chief Executive Monday.

To mark the sesquicentennial of Malacañan Palace, the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office will launch Monday an online commemoration of its conversion from a rest house to the official residence of Spanish and American Governors-General and later, Philippine Presidents.

This includes the publication of the timeline of the Palace from both an institutional and architectural perspective on the Presidential Museum and Library (PML) website, www.malacanang.gov.ph, Lacierda said.

Online visitors would be treated to “colorized archival photographs” of Palace vistas and significant events such as the visit of Prince Edward of Wales, as well as an animated architectural evolution of the Palace, he said.

“One of the reasons we have done colorization is to invite the youth to take part in viewing our historical pictures. We have noticed that the youth are not excited by black and white,” Lacierda said.

“We enjoin the public to take part in this commemoration by visiting the PML website and its other social media sites (tumblr.malacanang.gov.ph and facebook.com/malacanang) or by booking a visit to experience firsthand the history and heritage of this great house which belongs to the Filipino people,” the spokesman said.

The Spanish Governors General had “lived grandly” in Intramuros since the 17th century in the Palacio del Gobernador on Plaza Mayor (now Plaza Roma), according to the PML website.

A powerful earthquake on June 3, 1863, “felled” the Palacio, prompting the Governor General to move to Malacañan Palace.

Since he found it too small, the Governor General had a wooden two-story building erected at the back of the original structure and smaller buildings for aides, guards and porters, stables, carriage sheds and a boat landing for river-borne visitors.

Over the years, this was repaired and improved after being struck by an earthquake, typhoons and fires.

American Governors General continued to improve and enlarge Malacañang, “buying up more land, reclaiming more of the Pasig River, raising the ground level (to keep above flood waters), changing the wood to concrete and beautifying the interiors with hardwood paneling and magnificent chandeliers,” it said.

In 1920, Governor General Francis Burton Harrison had the Executive Building constructed. From 1935, when Manuel L. Quezon moved to the Palace as the President of the Commonwealth, it saw more improvements: the construction of the Social Hall, State Dining Room and the Pasig River façade.