The new Senate building was conceptualized in 2011, according to Senator Sherwin Gatchalian.

Senator Panfilo Lacson, chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, said that the Senate rents the GSIS area for P250 million per year. This is the reason why a new building of its own should be constructed.

Lacson said that, barring hitches, the start of construction on the two-hectare lot site beside the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) complex would be in January 2019.

The building was slated for completion within two years. Senators and other personnel, Lacson said, were scheduled to leave for the new Senate building in 2020.

Former presidential spokesperson Rigoberto Tiglao said the cost of the project should instead be used to fortify the contested islands, reefs and islets in the West Philippine Sea, among others.

On 19 February 2021, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said that the Senate should reconsider the construction of its new building in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, as the government scrambled for funds to buy vaccines and provide aid to pandemic-hit sectors.

Panelo said he agreed “1,000 percent” with Tiglao that the planned new Senate home should be converted into a modern hospital to help treat patients infected with the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

“Can you imagine? We are looking for funds for vaccines. We’re even borrowing money. We need money for assistance to the poor, those who lost their jobs. Then here we’re building a huge Senate building, three towers based on the design I saw,” he added.

If more people get wind of the Senate project, Panelo warned about its impact on the fate of the senators who would seek reelection.

“Many of you are reelectionists. The electorate might react to us. Maybe not now. Our Senate building is still okay anyway,” he said.

The construction of the new Senate Building started on 18 March 2019 with a groundbreaking ceremony led by Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III.

“After much planning and review, we are glad to finally start the implementation of the new Senate building. The project is in line with the Senate’s vision — Bagong Senado sa Ika-Dalawang Siglo, which is to build a permanent home for the upper house as it commemorates its hundred-year legacy and ushers in its next centenary,” said DPWH Secretary Mark A. Villar, in a message read by DPWH Undersecretary Robert R. Bernardo.

DPWH Undersecretary Bernardo assisted the Senate President and the distinguished senators in the ceremonial placing of the following documents inside the capsule before it was lowered into the hole: Masterplan of the Senate Building; Committee Report 170, “Construction of Senate Building”; Senate Resolution No. 293; “Resolution Creating an Ad Hoc Committee Tasked to Conduct a Feasibility Study on the Construction of a New Senate Building and Relocation of the Senate Thereto.”

“The rising cost of the new Senate building” will be our next episode on 10 February.

Email: arturobesana2@gmail.com