GMA ‘exorcises’ Palace of ‘Satanic’ symbols

If there’s something that keeps bedeviling the Philippines, President Arroyo believes there may be some links to "Satanic symbols" right in the inner sanctums of Ma-lacañang.

A devout Catholic, Mrs. Arroyo decided to "exorcise" these so-called symbols from Malacañang, consisting of pentagram lighting structures on the ceiling of former President Ferdinand Marcos’ bedroom.

Construction workers have started removing these structures and redesigning the room which had been partitioned into two to serve as the offices of outgoing Press Secretary Noel Cabrera and Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao.

When visited in his office yesterday, Tiglao explained to The STAR the ongoing makeover when he was teased if the renovation might have something to do with his being named concurrent press secretary by the end of the month.

"The President wants the Satanic symbols removed," Tiglao quipped.

When Mrs. Arroyo decided to return to the tradition of making Malacañang the official residence of the president, she found to her surprise that the Palace in which she had lived as a youngster had been drastically changed by the Marcoses.

One of these changes was the installation of the pentagram lighting structures in the spacious bedroom of the late dictator who, historians claimed, believed in the power of healing through this symbol.

When former President Corazon Aquino took power after the ouster of Marcos following the first EDSA revolt in February 1986, she decided to transfer the official residence of the president to nearby Arlegui.

Aquino instead turned Malacañang into a museum and opened it to public viewing to show the excesses and extravagance of the exiled family.

The Marcos bedroom became among the highlights of the daily Palace Museum tours and featured the pentagram as proof of the supposed devil-worship of the dictator who in his final years had been very ill.

Aquino’s tradition was continued by her successor, President Fidel Ramos.

But when former President Joseph Estrada took over, he decided to live at Malacañang but used as his official residence the adjacent Guest House constructed during Marcos’ term for the stay of visiting heads of state.

So when Mrs. Arroyo assumed office at Malacañang on Jan. 20 last year, the Palace tours were discontinued and the Museum transferred to the adjacent Kalayaan Building which was being used by the various units under the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS) and the Office of the Presidential Spokesman.

The OPS units were relocated to Arlegui and the offices of both Cabrera and Tiglao were transferred from Kalayaan to the former bedroom of the late strongman.