The Boracay Mansion was an unfinished residential building in the northern part of the New Manila neighbourhood of

Quezon City Quezon City (, ; fil, Lungsod Quezon ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read in Filipino as Kyusi), is the List of cities in the Philippines, most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a populatio ...

, Philippines. Formerly owned by

Joseph Estrada Joseph Ejercito Estrada, (; born Jose Marcelo Ejercito; April 19, 1937), also known by the nickname Erap, is a Filipino politician and former actor. He served as the 13th president of the Philippines from 1998 to 2001, the 9th vice preside ...

, the 13th

President of the Philippines The president of the Philippines ( fil, Pangulo ng Pilipinas, sometimes referred to as ''Presidente ng Pilipinas'') is the head of state, head of government and chief executive of the Philippines. The president leads the executive branch of t ...

and former

Mayor of Manila The City Mayor of Manila ( fil, Punong Lungsod ng Maynila, sometimes referred to as, ''Alkalde ng Maynila'') is the head of the executive branch of Manila's city government. The mayor holds office at Manila City Hall. Like all local government he ...

, the house was reportedly built for his

mistress Mistress is the feminine form of the English word "master" (''master'' + ''-ess'') and may refer to: Romance and relationships * Mistress (lover), a term for a woman who is in a sexual and romantic relationship with a man who is married to a d ...

, former film actress Laarni Enríquez. The structure has since been demolished, with the

Quezon City Reception House The Quezon City Reception House is a reception house built and owned by the government of Quezon City to accommodate visiting dignitaries. It was built on the lot of the uncompleted and controversial Boracay Mansion. It was previously occupied by ...

built on the site.

Background

Reported by the

Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) is a non-profit media organization specializing in investigative journalism. It is based in Quezon City, Philippines. Established in 1989 by nine Filipino journalists, the organization fu ...

as one of President Joseph Estrada's 17 palatial properties, it became one of the focal points of his impeachment trial in 2001. The property occupied by the mansion was bought by St. Peter's Holdings Corp. on October 1, 1999, but the owner of the firm, Jose Yulo, has stated that the real owner of the mansion was Jaime Dichaves, a friend of Estrada. Estrada denied owning the mansion, saying he only borrowed the property from Dichaves. The mansion occupied of two adjacent lots in the historic and posh neighborhood of

New Manila Mariana, is an administrative division in eastern Metro Manila, the Philippines. It is an urban barangay in Quezon City in a middle class residential and commercial area known as New Manila, which includes Barangay Mariana and the adjacent Baranga ...

. The moniker "Boracay Mansion" was inspired by the powdery white sand said to have been brought from

Boracay Boracay (; often locally shortened to Bora) is a resort island in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines, located off the northwest coast of Panay. It has a total land area of , under the jurisdiction of three barangays in Malay, Akla ...

to adorn its pool equipped with a wave and mist-making machine. Tropical cabanas once adorned the pool area, with the two-storey white mansion as the focal point. A presumed

Presidential Security Group The Presidential Security Group, shortened as PSG, is a Philippine close protection agency. It is the primary agency concerned with providing close-in security and escort to the president, their immediate families, former presidents of the Philip ...

facility, a

pelota Pelota (Spanish for ''ball'') can refer to the popular and shortened names for a number of ball games: * Basque pelota * Chaza * Jai alai * Mesoamerican ballgame * Palla * Pelota mixteca * Valencian pilota * Frontenis * Pétanque Pétanqu ...

court and

treehouses A tree house, tree fort or treeshed is a platform or building constructed around, next to or among the trunk or branches of one or more mature trees while above ground level. Tree houses can be used for recreation, work space, habitation, a han ...

once adorned the property.

Forfeiture

Originally registered as the property of St. Peter Holdings, the property was forfeited by the

Sandiganbayan The Sandiganbayan ( en, Support of the Nation) is a special appellate collegial court in the Philippines that has jurisdiction over criminal and civil cases involving graft and corrupt practices and other offenses committed by public officer ...

in favor of the Quezon City government. The firm owed the city government in delinquencies amounting to ₱1.7 million. On September 15, 2005, the city government put the property into auction, but no firm placed a bid for the property. The city government tried to contact St. Peter Holdings at its registered address before the auction, but found out that the company was no longer occupying its given address at Strata 100 Building in

Ortigas Center Ortigas Center is a central business district located within the joint boundaries of Pasig, Mandaluyong and Quezon City, within the Metro Manila region in the Philippines. With an area of more than , it is Metro Manila's second most important bu ...

. In November 2007, the Sandiganbayan ordered the Quezon City government to relinquish its title to the property so it can be auctioned off to the national government. For a time, the structure was used by Barangay Mariana, the adjacent

barangay A barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as barrio (abbreviated as Bo.), is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district, or ward. In metropolitan ...

, as a waste-processing facility in August 2009. A second auction held on January 26, 2010, following a failed bidding made five years earlier in September 2005, still did not gain any bidders and was also declared a failure. The property was then pegged to value at least ₱142.9 million, even though it was too deteriorated for residential use at that time. This prompted the city government to take full possession of the property for use by the Office of the Mayor. On the property, the

was built as the official residence of the Mayor of Quezon City, which later became the official residence of former Vice President

Leni Robredo Maria Leonor "Leni" Gerona Robredo (; born Maria Leonor Santo Tomas Gerona; April 23, 1965) is a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the 14th vice president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. She was the wife of the late Jesse ...

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Quezon City Joseph Estrada Former buildings and structures in Metro Manila