| People's Park in the Sky | |
| Type: | Urban park |
| Location: | Mount Sungay in Calabuso North, Tagaytay, Cavite, Philippines |
| Coords: | 14.1414°N 121.0219°W |
| Status: | Open to public |
The People's Park in the Sky, often simply called People's Park and originally named Palace in the Sky, is a historic urban park in Tagaytay, Cavite, Philippines.
The park was converted from an unfinished mansion, known as the Palace in the Sky, initiated during the Marcos era to host the state visit of US President Ronald Reagan, then discontinued when Reagan canceled his visit. The conversion was made in 1986 after Marcos was replaced by Corazon Aquino as president.[1] The incomplete scaffolding of the mansion remained intact.
The Shrine of Our Lady, Mother of Fair Love and a Doppler weather radar station maintained by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) are also within the park.[2]
During the Marcos administration, First Lady Imelda Marcos decided to build a mansion on government-owned land atop Mount Sungay (also known as Mount Gonzales), the highest point in the province of Cavite. The summit had been previously used by the Bureau of Air Transport as a radar station.
Construction on the mansion began in 1981. The height of the summit, originally 752m (2,467feet), made the work difficult. Roads were specially built to enable supplies to reach the summit. Farmers living on the mountainside were asked to relocate. The summit was leveled, cutting down its height to 709m (2,326feet). Construction of the mansion was hastened when US President Ronald Reagan announced his intention to visit the Philippines in November of 1983. It was reported that the Marcos administration planned to accommodate Reagan at the mansion. The construction halted after the White House canceled the trip.
Following the deposition of the Marcos regime in the People Power Revolution in February 1986, critics described the unfinished mansion as a symbol of the Marcos administration's excess.[3]
The Shrine of Our Lady, Mother of Fair Love is located within the People's Park in the Sky. The shrine was installed on December 15, 1974, with the installation of the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the child Jesus by Hernan D. Reyes, aided by four high school students and two workers. During the construction of the Palace in the Sky in 1981, workers were unable to blast a huge rock containing the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary with several dynamite blasts. The rock was left intact, after the discovery of the image.[4]