Sometime in a Palace

In a few weeks time my country again will subdue for the next six years under a lady known to have an iron fist, it’s the kind of iron that is as thick as her tongues promises of hope. Not many know that I have met this lady in person on several occasions in my life, the same lady I refer to as the “Witch that lives in a palace”. In the entire young life of mine I have shake the hands and once spoke to 2 former president and the current president of the country. I can say during those rare occasions I felt the electricity much to the excitement of meeting someone with so much great power that can uplift or yet ruin the life of my countrymen. But nothing could be as gratifying as to step in their official home.

During the post-EDSA I revolution, my family and I, together with a cousin and an uncle went to the home of the most powerful man in the land called the “Malacañan Palace”. It was opened to the public like a museum, after the successful revolt against a 20-year rule of dictatorship and oppression. The seemingly endless drama that is engrave in every wall of the palace, tells the rich history of the nation-in full glory and in most dire days. I was a kid then, not knowing what was it like to enter a palace, so just like the hundreds of people lined up towards the gate under the heat of the sun, I patiently waited for hours to get in. All I know then was that we would visit the home of the Marcoses months after they fled for their lives from the angst of thousands of Filipinos who marched towards the Palace. Never in my life I have seen a home as grandeur as the Malacañan; the wooden stairs, carpeted floors, the paintings, the chandleries, a huge aquarium with large fishes, the piano, the room filled with Imelda’s shoes, and so on and on…but what really stuck to my mind until now were the bedrooms with huge beds, especially that of Ferdinand Marcos’ that smells more like a drug store. He was a sick man, my father said, not only he has a sick mind but also he was ailing from an unknown disease. Of course coming from a middle class family what thrilled me more was the fascination of living in such a grandioso lifestyle, first and foremost is the fully air-conditioned home, the nice carpets where I can just roll and play, own the same size aquarium, and many other simple thoughts for a kid like me then who have wish a fabulous life. Though disappointed at some time when I realized I saw no toys in that huge place. Poor life for the kid who would live there.

As we strolled around the gates, I saw many guards carrying huge ammunitions, perhaps at that time everybody may have still feel the tensions around the palace, a hangover from the historical EDSA people power. An event, which many say, put the Philippines into the map of the world. I hear many say back then, that they are proud to be a Filipino.

As for me, by the time we say goodbye to Malacañan Palace that day. I wondered when can I get back and see the splendid place again…Well, certainly not in a few weeks or months…as my father had left abroad to seek and to provide greener pasture for us, my uncle went back to the province and rarely hear something from him, my cousin was already working, and I had gone finished through grade school, high school and college and still I haven’t had the opportunity to get a second visit to the Palace.

Until…sometime a few years ago I worked as an event organizer, this time the event is to be held inside the Malacañan Palace, it’s in the Heroes Hall to be specific. So in no time I see myself on the way to the palace after more than15 years from the first time I got there. On the way, I kind have reminisced of the old days, I felt somewhat uncomfortable for no reason why. By the way, my purpose in the Palace is not to have another sight seeing but a business one, and that is to make an appointment with President Arroyo who will be the guest of honor for the event I was organizing. The Christmas holiday was in the air, the reason by the time we reached the main entrance door, Palace staff were busy decorating, putting green Christmas lights embed with thick plastic green leaves and a huge elegant Christmas tree. A beauty it was. As I waited in the lounge I still feel so uncomfortable, I was perspiring a lot, not sure why, I just look and headed for a men’s room. There I contemplated, and realized I have to…I have to take out stuff from my stomach. And yes!!! After more than15 years of a much long waited second visit in the grandioso Palace I see my self sitting in one of the Palace toilets. If what they say is true, that everything that comes in and out of the Malacañan Palace is already part of its rich history. Then from that day on, I consider Malacanan Palace history was one stuff richer.