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.