Malacañang may be renamed People’s Palace

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – President Duterte is mulling the idea of renaming Malacañang Palace as the People’s Palace in an effort to bring the country’s seat of power closer to the people, especially the poor. 

The President said the word Malacañang is imperialist, connoting something far removed from the Filipino everyman.

He said renaming it People’s Palace would make it easier for the people to identify with it as the country’s seat of power. 

“As much as possible, I want that people can enter and tour the place so they will know what’s inside,” the President said at a press briefing early yesterday in this city.

The President said he wanted the poor, especially the children of residents of Pandacan and Tondo in Manila, to first tour the place as soon as arrangements are made. 

“It will then be followed by other groups and other communities,” he said. 

Duterte said renaming Malacañang as the People’s Palace could erase perceptions that it was solely for the use of the mighty and powerful, as it was during the Spanish era.

Malacañang, the official residence and principal workplace of the Philippine president located in Manila, is a complex of buildings built largely in Spanish colonial and neo-classical styles.

Although Duterte now resides at the Bahay ng Pagbabago within the Presidential Security Group compound across the Pasig River, he also makes it a point to come home to Davao City every weekend since he assumed office last June 30.

Duterte said he was not keen on the grandeur of the Palace and would rather spend most of his time here. 

While in Davao City, the President uses the Presidential Guesthouse called Malacañang of the South located inside the Department of Public Works and Highways equipment depot in Barangay Panacan for his official functions.