VP Binay to hold office at the Coconut Palace by next year

Vice President Jejomar Binay will permanently hold office at the 32-year-old Coconut Palace in Pasay City starting next year, his media affairs officer said Saturday. Binay plans to transfer from his present office at the Philippine National Bank (PNB) Financial Center in Pasay City to his new official residence within the first three months of 2011, according to Binay’s media relation officer Joey Salgado. “The Office of the Vice President (OVP) has found a permanent home… The vice president needs a permanent location in recognition of his office, the second highest position in the land," he told GMANews.TV in a text message Saturday. Salgado explained that Binay decided to take President Benigno Aquino III’s offer to make the Coconut Palace as the vice president’s official residence since renting the place, currently owned by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), will be “more cost-effective in the long run." “We rent the current office at P880,000, while the Coconut Palace will only cost P400,000 per month. The rent for the new place is almost half of the present rates, so it is really more cost-effective," he said. He added that the transfer of Binay’s office will not only benefit the incumbent vice president, but also those who will occupy the same post in the future. “It transcends the term of Vice President Binay. Future vice presidents now have a permanent office unlike in the past when the OVP had to transfer locations several times," he said. Binay is only waiting for the renovations in the area to be finished before he moves in to his new office, he added. The Coconut Palace gets its name from the tropical palm tree that yields coconut lumber, of which 70 percent of the building was reportedly made. It was built in 1978 reportedly at the cost of P37 million on the instructions of then First Lady Imelda Marcos, wife of strongman Ferdinand Marcos, to serve as Presidential Guest House. It is said that Mrs. Marcos offered the late Pope John Paul II to stay at the Coconut Palace during his visit to the country in 1981, but the pope declined because it was too opulent given the widespread poverty in the country. President Aquino himself offered the Coconut Palace to become Binay’s official residence in a meeting last June before they were both officially inaugurated into the country’s top two posts. (See: Coconut Palace eyed as Binay's office, residence)—JV, GMANews.TV