Speech by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. at the Reopening of the Coconut Palace

Good evening, everyone.

Excellencies of the Diplomatic Corps; all of our special guests – many of whom are coming back to the Coconut Palace after many, many, many years.

I haven’t seen it in this condition for a very long time. I mean, it looks very much like what it was at the very beginning. And I’m sure that the stories have been told to you of some of the dignitaries, famous people, actors, basically all the friends of my mom.

And because this was first conceptualized as a guest house for visitors of the Palace that would come to stay here.

So it really has – we should really make a recognition of all of those who occupied some of the rooms that are upstairs.

I’m very, very grateful to be able to see it again.

So, well, the First Lady, of course, has put her shoulder to the wheel as she is meant to do.

And we have now the Coconut Palace back to its old glory.

And the reason that we had done it was because we needed more extra spaces for the summit, the ASEAN Summit that’s coming in November. And so we needed more spaces and that is why… That is one of the reasons why we put it back together again. And I would be very, very proud to bring any of our guests here to come and stay and to enjoy their time here in the Philippines.

We are very lucky to be the first to see the new improved, rehabilitated, remodeled Coconut Palace. Well I shouldn’t say remodeled because it really looks very much like it used to be.

And I’m sure that my mother is very, very happy to see it once again in its former glory. And I look forward to the future and I hope that we will once again be able to host some of the dignitaries that come to visit with us here in the Philippines.

So thank you all very much for joining us and please enjoy the rest of the evening.

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