Tagaytay

I went to the Philippines for work in 2023, and one of my stops was in the city of Tagaytay, which I knew nothing about. I was told by my co-worker to meet up with Nilo, my host and the person who ran the program that our organization supported there. I was in Tagaytay for three days, and it only took one day to visit the small community center where Nilo was helping children from a local community get educational supplies and food. For the second and third day of my trip, Nilo suggested that we do some sightseeing, and come to find out, he was the undeclared mayor of the town. Which is funny because while we were visiting a local mall, we saw the real mayor of Tagaytay. Nilo knew the mayor and shook his hand excitedly, as you do when you see a local celebrity or politician in public. Nilo knew everyone everywhere we went. He knew every security guard at every park. He knew every shop owner. He knew every police officer we encountered. He even worked with the police when he wasn't running the community center. He is a deeply religious man, and he taught cops about using empathy within their line of work. Basically, he was trying to teach them how not to be abusers of power, how not to use violence when they could use their words.

On our second day of sightseeing, we picked up Nilo’s five-year-old daughter, Queenie, from school and made our way to the People's Park in the Sky. It was the abandoned mansion of the former Marcos regime, in which Marcos is remembered for his corrupt habits and his wife is remembered for her love of expensive shoes. The mansion was never finished, supposedly built for the state visit of then U.S. President Ronald Reagan, which never occurred. Forty years later, it sits as an empty concrete compound on top of a hill (the highest hill in Tagaytay) with a breathtaking view of Taal Lake. We wandered around the empty rooms, the walls cracked, the floors barren and cold. There were no plaques or wall hangings or signs. Queenie ran around as Nilo chased her, and we took turns taking photos of one another along the balconies, the rolling hills in the background. This was no palace of wealth or abundance. It was nothingness, but it allowed space to enjoy time with friends and family and to feel free—something it never would have been if the Marcoses had remained in power. For the locals, it really is the People’s Park, and for me, the memories I have of it make it one of the most beautiful palaces I have ever seen.