The Malacañang Palace Presidential Museum & Library

I have been living in Manila for over 8 years now. I have seen almost all the heritage sites around the metro and even around the country. I have even visited a lot of ancestral houses of noted personalities in Philippine history. The only missing in my bucket list is the Malacanan Palace, the home of the Philippine presidents. A few weeks ago, that wish was granted. As a heritage buff, the fulfillment of visiting the place where the Spanish, American governor generals starting in 1863 and presidents of the Philippines resided is priceless. I mean who would not want to see the home of the highest executive position in the country which is considered as the pinnacle of the country's public servants political career?

The word Malacañan according to the official history of the Palace says it was derived in Spanish meaning "a place of the fisherman". The resident tour guide who guided us all through out our visit there said that it also meant in our own words "May lakan dyan" or in English "There's a powerful person residing there".  The last letter g is said to have added by the people uttering this word always.

When you visit the Malacañang Palace, please make sure to schedule a visit ahead of time and secure a permit because the security personnels wont let you in. Please be there on time because even  if your visit is valid, they may not accommodate you because they follow a number of visitors allowed to roam the place at a time.

Since MP is a home we are not allowed to come inside where our current president resides nor take a photo of it. The only part of MP which is hopen for the public to visit is the historic Kalayaan Hall where the Presidential Museum and Library and different galleries of past presidents are located.

What is inside the Presidential Museum & Library?

1. Old Governor General's Office 

You can see here the furniture used by Pres. Ferdinand Marcos when he appeared on tv to annouce Martial Law in 1972

2. The Osmeña Cabinet Room

During American colonial era, this room serves as the meeting place of the cabinet and of the Council of State.

3. The Quezon Executive Office

This served as the executive office of President Quezon until the early years of Pres. Marcos.

4. The Main Hall

This is the widest of all we visited where at first was a ballroom area. This used to be the site for guest bedrooms in 1920 but was transformed into offices to accommodate the growing beaurocracy during the early years of the Philippine Commonwealth.

There are a lot of historical rooms that we saw: The Roxas Cabinet Room - this used to be the control room for Pres. Marcos' tv studio. But since Pres. Roxas uses regulary used this room regularly for his cabinet meetings, this was named after him, the Quirino Council of State Room - succeeding administrations used this room for important meetings, signing of treaties and conventions between the Republic and foreign governments, the Old Vice President's Office - contains hand painted pictures of the country's vice presidents whom six of them ascended to the presidency later.

All in all, the Malacañang Palace is the mirror of an extraordinaire house of the past. I love the architecture inside made of finest local trees. I have seen a lot of tables that cannot be moved by a single person and grand chandeliers that look so majestic.  I wish to share more photos but there' s only one person in the group allowed to bring camera inside. 

For more information, please visit the official website http://malacanang.gov.ph/ of Malacanang Palace. I don't want to spill to much information, every Filipino should really see this place.

Special thanks to fellow blogger Joel Evo Contrivida for inviting me and Deo De Guzman of RMN DZXL 558 KHZ for arranging our tour sa palace.