Duterte wants to call the Malacañan ‘The People’s Palace’
Change is really coming, not only on the drug problem in the Philippines, but on the name of the Malacañan Palace – the official residence of the chief executive.
Situated across the Pasig River in Manila, Malacañan is the official residence and workplace of the president of the Philippines.
On Thursday morning, President Rodrigo Duterte expressed his plans to change the name of the Malacañan Palace, aging 200 years now.
“Call it Malacañan Palace, I only call it ‘The People’s Palace.’ One day I will rename it, ‘People’s Palace,'” he told reporters in Davao City early Thursday.
“That’s why I always say it, I know the palace of the people called Malacañang. You have heard me say that. I never say diretso ‘Malacañan Palace.’ Hindi naman palasyo iyan eh. Noon lang iyan sa mga panahon ng mga p— i— pumunta dito at ginawa tayong alipin. ‘Yun mga Espanyol pati mga Amerikano, sino pa?” he said.
“You know why? In the word “Malacañan,” it sucks with imperialism. Totoo. Sino man ang nagpangalan ng ‘Malacañan Palace’? Mga Espanyol man iyan. Why should [not] I just address it as the ‘People’s Palace of the Republic of the Philippines’?” he added.
According to Duterte, the term Palace was only used during the Spanish and American regime in the country.
“Hindi naman palasyo yan eh. Noon lang’ yan sa mga panahon ng mga p****g-i***g pumunta dito at ginawa tayong alipin. ‘Yun mga Español pati mga Amerikano, sino pa?” he said.
(It’s not a palace. It was only called that during the regime of those (invective) who came here to conquer us. The Spanish and the Americans, who else?)
The President said he was persuaded on changing the name because the term “Malacañan” was associated with the idea of imperialism.
Duterte also added that he wants the name of Malacanang be changed before his term ends in 2019.
The website of the Presidential Museum and Library says, the “Posesion de Malacañang” was originally “a country home and temporary residence of outgoing Governors General awaiting the next ship to Spain.” It temporarily became the country’s seat of power after an earthquake damaged the Palacio del Gobernador in Intramuros in year 1863.
Malacanang became the official residence of the American governor-general during the colonial rule of the United States of America, before becoming the residence of the Philippine president when the country’s Commonwealth was established in 1935.
