Come Holy Thursday, Grace, then 2.5-year old Jandy and I, plus our E. Ganzon, Inc. friends Alex D. Guda and Mel Miranda decided to go on a day tour to the controversial, half-finished Palace in the Sky. Located 8 kms. east of the Tagaytay City rotunda, on the 710-m. high Mt. Gonzales (or Mt. Sungay), the former “Palace” was a multi-million exercise in extravagance started in 1981 by the late former Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos for the 1983 state visit of then U.S. Pres. Ronald Reagan. The state visit unfortunately (or is it fortunately?) never pushed through after the August 21, 1983 assassination of Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.. Marcos was deposed by the People Power Revolution of February 1986 and it was left unfinished and abandoned.
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| Palace in the Sky |
Upon our arrival, Alex, Grace, Jandy and I hiked along the asphalt road going all the way to the top but Mel took the more easygoing horseback ride. Even in its unfinished state, it was quite “palatial,” a true symbol of greed and indifference. Also called the “Malacanang of Tagaytay” and “Bahay ni Imelda,” the pyramid-shaped villa had a huge kidney-shaped swimming pool and a tall radio antenna.
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| Hiking our way up the asphalt road |
There was no one about, it being a holiday, but inside the palace were signs of new construction going on. I even noticed, and was baffled, by a blueprint plan for a “torture chamber.” A mystery indeed! From the view deck we experienced the sweet, fresh and invigorating air of the city and admired the marvelous 360 degree view of 4 bodies of water (Taal Lake, Laguna de Bay, Balayan Bay and Manila Bay) and landward views of Metro Manila, Batangas, Rizal, Cavite, Quezon and even Mindoro, a spectacle initially meant for a chosen few.
AUTHOR’S NOTES
Nine month after our visit, the “Palace” hugged some of headlines when rebel soldiers took over the villa’s radio antenna during the failed December coup de etat. In 1990, the mystery of the “torture chamber” was unveiled when the movie Delta Force 2: The Columbian Connection, starring Chuck Norris, as a U.S. commando leader, and Billy Drago, as a Colombian drug lord, was shown in local cinemas. The “Palace” turned out to be the drug lord’s seemingly impenetrable mansion and the “torture chamber,” his private viewing gallery where U.S. DEA agents were smothered to death by poison gas. Some mystery!
On January 14, 1996, the “Palace” was ordered rehabilitated and refurbished into a 4,516-hectare resort by then Pres. Fidel V. Ramos. Since then, it has been democratically renamed as the People’s Park in the Sky and is now enjoyed by poor and ordinary citizens. Today, it has a lower ground restaurant, bar, 200-person open-air amphitheater (where free cultural and musical shows are held, Saturday and Sundays), view deck, native picnic huts and tables, wishing well (toss a coin and make a wish), fishing lagoon (the former swimming pool), art gallery, a grotto with 25-foot statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Our Lady of Fair Love, 150-person second floor seminar room (Centennial Room), second floor museum, lower ground tourism office, souvenir shops and a giant replica of the pineapple.
Today, the park has again fallen into neglect. The fishing lagoon is now filled up into a garden, graffiti is everywhere and the premises are dirty. Only the views remain spectacular.
People’s Park in the Sky: Brgy. Dapdap West and Dapdap East, Tagaytay City, Cavite. Admission: PhP15.