Bukas na sa publiko ang “The Mansion” o ang Mansion House sa Baguio City.
Bago nito, ang pagpapa-picture sa The Mansion ay hanggang sa iron gates lamang.
“Now it’s a tourist attraction. It always was, but it was behind closed gates,” sabi ni Presidential Social Secretary Bianca Zobel sa media nitong September 8, 2024.
Sabi pa ng kalihim, “Starting today we are open to the public. We are opening the Presidential Museum in the Baguio Mansion House.”
Ito raw ang rason: “[W]e have noticed, everyday, mga 500 tourists are taking pictures of the Mansion House, and on weekends it reaches up to 2,000.
“So we’d like to open the doors so people can come inside and take pictures inside… so that the people can learn about their history, about the presidents.”
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WHAT IS INSIDE THE PRESIDENTIAL MUSEUM
May pahapyaw si Zobel tungkol sa mga bagay na makikita sa loob ng Mansion House.
May mga “repurposed [items] from Malacañang.”
Dagdag niya, “Also, we have a lot of paintings and artifacts that are extra and we have no space to put it in Malacañang so we have sent it all here for the people of the north to enjoy.
“It’s an opportunity since this house was never really used and also it’s a continuation of Malacañang heritage mansions that we have.”
Ang tinutukoy ni Zobel ay ang Bahay Ugnayan at Teus Mansion, dalawang museums sa Malacañang, para makilala ang mga dating presidente ng bansa.
Itinayo ang Mansion House sa Baguio noong 1908 at dito tumira ang American governor-general.
Nang itatag ang Philippine Commonwealth noong 1935, ipinasa na ito sa Pangulo.
Nasira ito noong World War II noong 1945 at inayos noong 1947.
Sabi pa ni Zobel ukol sa pagbubukas ng Mansion House, “We’ve only started actually with the museum itself.
“We still have to do renovations on the roof and we wanted to also fix the garden, so that we can do walking tourists in the future.”
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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW about the mansion
Bukas sa publiko ang Presidential Museum ng The Mansion mula Tuesday hanggang Sunday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Sarado ito tuwing Lunes.
Libre ang pamamasyal dito, pero limitado ang bilang ng mga makakapasok.
Iminumungkahi ni Zobel ang pagbu-book ng tour via Facebook, Instagram, at website ng The Mansion.
Sabi niya, “We can also take in walk-ins, but we can only take 20 people per tour. The tours are every 30 minutes.
“So if there is space, let’s say only 15 people arrived, we can put five walk-ins. But it would be better to book a tour.
Paliwanag ng kalihim, “Because the rooms inside are small and the way it walks… you walk through you might just bump into each other. So that’s the reason. We’re only doing 20 at once.”