The Coconut Palace in the Philippines is the official residence and working place of the Vice-President of the Philippines, but it is one of the biggest touristic attractions in the country. The building got the Tagalog (official Filipino language) name ‘Tahanang Pilipino’ because of the use of coconut timber, in the luxurious palace whole coconut trees are part of the construction.
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The roof tiles are made of coconut wood. The pillars are integrated coconut tree trunks, even the parquet consist of coconut wood and the walls are coconut fibers. A gigantic chandelier is the crown jewel and assembled from 101 coconuts. The dinner table is a collection of 40.000 selected coconut mosaic tiles. Seventy percent of the palace consists out of coconut related materials. It is highly symbolic because, in the Philippines, the coconut tree is ‘The Tree of Life’.
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The Coconut Palace has style and elegance. Constructed under the rule of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his famous wife Imelda, it is a perfect example of the dubious lifestyle of the couple who after a swift revolution had to go in exile to the Hawaiian Islands.
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The fortune of the Marcos couple is even now still legendary and they owned besides luxury buildings and palaces, many priceless works of art like masterpieces of Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Rafael and Van Gogh. The jewels, golden furniture, diamonds and cash-filled easily three Boeings when they hasty departure from the Philippines.
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Especially the extravagate lifestyle of Imelda Marcos had drawn a lot of attention. The collection of thousands of shoes of this First Lady is something that still makes people smile and wonder. Those shoes got even their own museum now: ‘The Marikina Shoe Museum in Manila’.
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The Coconut Palace was another of her creations; she designed it herself and mainly used it to entertain important foreign guests. The palace is a megalomaniac endeavor to consolidate the personality cult around her and her husband. The price tag then was 10 million dollar, a huge prize when you consider the poverty of the Philippines then and now.
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In 1981, Imelda invited Pope John-Paul II to stay there during his visit to the islands, for reasons unknown the Pope refused. Imelda threw then a grand opening party with Hollywood celebrities like Brooke Shields and George Hamilton. In 2011, it became a public building and it is open to the public. It is a beautiful architectural place and worth a visit!
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