Joseph Estrada shown secrets of new home

Joseph Estrada shown secrets of new home

MANILA (Reuters): Incoming President Joseph Estrada was shown
the palace yesterday which will be home for the next six years,
including a disco and secret passages to escape rebel attacks and
pestering journalists.

President Fidel Ramos, who acted as guide for the former movie
actor, said the tour showed the world that unlike some countries,
the transfer of power in the Philippines was friendly and
peaceful.

Ramos led Estrada around the various parts of Malacanang
Palace, which Spanish colonizers built in the early 19th century
and which became official home of Philippine presidents after
World War Two.

Lying on the banks of Manila's heavily polluted Pasig river,
Malacanang was attacked in 1987 and 1989 by right-wing army
rebels in two failed coups against then president Corazon Aquino.

"He (Ramos) showed me ... the playgrounds, even the secret
passages," Estrada told reporters.

"But I don't think anyone will attack me," he quipped, adding
he might, however, use the passages to flee nosy reporters.

Ramos, who will step down and turn the palace over to Estrada
on June 30 at the end of his six-year term, said the tour was
intended not just to make its future tenant feel at home.

"What we are doing now really is to show to our successor and
to the world we Filipinos do it in a slightly different way,"
Ramos said.

"Ours is very friendly (and) very harmonious ... I hope it
will always stay that way because we are seeing how difficult and
violent it can be in some countries."

Ramos said the Philippines did not want to repeat its
experience in 1986 when a "people power" revolt forced late
dictator Ferdinand Marcos to flee the country.

More than just showing the palace hideaways, Ramos also gave
Estrada a tour of the presidential library, the palace golf
course, a disco hall used by the presidential guards and a gym --
apparently in case the incoming president might want to trim his
waist-line.

Estrada, riding on his popularity with the masses as a former
movie action star, won the presidential election last month,
routing nine rivals, including Ramos's preferred successor, House
Speaker Jose de Venecia.

Two weeks ago, Ramos gave Estrada a tour of another building
he uses as his official residence, a two-story building just
across the street from the presidential palace.

Estrada said he was reluctant to accept Ramos's offer to start
keeping an office in Malacanang even before his formal June 30
inauguration.

"People might think I am very eager to take over," he said.