It will be very late for this LP (since the deadline was feb 22), but i’d like to post this anyway. Besides, kai says

Anytime during the month of February you can write about or feature a photo of anything that involves the coconut, cooked or uncooked, edible or inedible. You can write about a time-honored tradition, or create/invent a new one for the succeeding generations. You can write about the coconut’s presence in your life while growing up in the Philippines, or what it has meant for you living elsewhere. Maybe discuss how coconuts are treated in your host country, dwelling on its status as compared to how it is valued in the Philippines.

My choice: The Coconut Palace

I’ve never been to the coconut palace. Honestly, I’ve heard about the coconut palace through words but never seen it, neither in person nor through pictures. I wasn’t aware of its existence! I’ll honestly tell you that the first time to see the outside of the palace was during the Pit Stop of the Amazing Race 5!

After doing some reading on it, the Coconut Palace has a really funny history. It was built for the pope’s (then Pope John Paul II) visit in 1981 by then first lady Imelda Marcos. But the pope declined to stay at the palace saying it was too ostentatious to stay at a palace while the country remains poverty-stricken. hmm… wonder what the marcoses felt…

and truly, it was a great palace! made entirely of indigenous materials, about 70% coconut, it was a showcase of the versatility and utility of the coconut.

Google-ing, i found these wonderful pictures. It was like going on a tour myself! aside from the ingenious use of coconut as material for the palace, i was in awe of the majesty of the architecture. it was somehow distinctly Filipino. I just feel that it didn’t try to pretend to be Asian or Spanish or American. That would be easy to say since I only saw it in pictures but deep inside me, I feel a great sense of pride thinking about how Pinoy the Coconut Palace is from the way it looks and how it was constructed.

If there was anything good that the Marcoses have given us, it was making the Filipino feel great, important, and unique — a great nation with a lot to be proud of.

now i’m itching to go there, take some pictures, and probably inquire about the rates for a reception. <insert sheepish smile here>