Malacañang restores heritage homes into ‘tourism assets’ for visiting dignitaries
THE Marcos Jr. administration is rolling out the red carpet for visiting dignitaries by providing restored heritage homes for their stay within the Malacañang Palace compound.
In a video blog over the weekend, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said in a mix of Filipino and English, “Most of our meetings and engagements are at the Palace, so these past few months, we added more Filipino hospitality assets. These are lodgings or guest houses for our visitors. Instead
of staying in hotels located at a distance, from where they will encounter traffic jams, and thus, will have difficulty in following their meeting schedules, they can stay here at the Palace.”
He added, “It just so happens that there are old houses within the Malacañang compound and we saw one that could be renovated, so that’s what we did.” He was referring to the Laperal Mansion, which First Lady Liza Araneta-marcos unveiled to the public last February through her social media accounts.
Another heritage home that was renovated is the 1900s-era Goldenberg Mansion along Gen.
Solano St., which is now used for cultural and arts events. The Office of the First Lady likewise spearheaded its renovation and reopened to the public in May 2023. It was first renovated by former First Lady Imelda R. Marcos in 1966 and transformed into a guest house. Malacañang failed to say how much was spent for the renovations of these mansions.
Marcos Jr. said renovation of these mansions were also part of government’s program to provide accessible venues for conferences and events. The Department of Tourism is putting renewed focus on MICE (Meetings Incentives Conferences Exhibitions) tourism, which generates significant visitor receipts for a country as it attracts large groups or gatherings for short event periods. Under its MICE Roadmap 2030, the DOT aims to reach the goal of generating some P25 billion in revenue by 2030 by lifting the Philippines as a leading MICE destination in Asia and the Middle East by then.
The Laperal Mansion, formerly the Arlegui Guesthouse as it is located along Arlegui Street, was the former residence of Presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel V. Ramos. It has 14 bedrooms, each one named after a former Philip
pine President, and restored by a number of the country’s notable interior designers. The “presidential suite” is named after President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. Built sometime in the 1900s, the newly renovated Laperal Mansion, also features five state rooms, a dining room, a multipurpose hall, and a spa.
Meanwhile, the President also urged Filipinos to continue practicing the world-renowned “Filipino hospitality” and become the country’s tourism ambassadors wherever they are in the world.
“Filipino hospitality is in all of us, as the home is where Filipinos learn to care for others,” he said, as he recalled how he is received by the world leaders during his various visits to their countries.
The President similarly spoke of Filipino hospitality at the recent awarding of 15 Tourism Challenge Champions, a project of the DOT, noting that aside from the country’s beautiful destinations, it is the “heart of the Filipino” that encourages tourists to visit.
There were 1.88 million foreign tourists who visited the Philippines from January to April 15, up 19 percent from the 1.58 million who arrived in a similar period in 2023. It was 14.5 percent less though than the first quarter of prepandemic 2019. (See, “Chinese, Japanese tourist numbers help lift PHL visitor arrivals in 4 mos,” in the B M , April 22, 2024.)