At 5:07 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, the Philippines’ three most notable political icons inaugurated the new Philippine International Convention Center (PICC). President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., First Lady Louise Araneta Marcos and former first lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos, 95 and in a wheel chair, cut the ceremonial ribbon at the lobby of the renovated PICC, Asia’s first and grandest international convention center in 1976.
With the vision of the inimitable Imelda and the design of National Artist Leandro Locsin, PICC was built in record time of 23 months by DM Consunji and AG and P for only P100 million. PICC in 1976 signaled to the world that the Philippines was ready for business.
This year, PICC’s renovation took only six months and under budget, thanks to First Lady Liza Marcos, says President Marcos Jr.
In 2025, a year before PICC’s 50th anniversary, PICC’s reopening again signals to the world it is ready for business, under the second Marcos president, BBM.
Coincidentally, Marcos Jr. has engineered the largest housecleaning ever undertaken in the Philippines by any president. BBM is the first whistleblower leader in recorded history. ‘It takes balls to do that,’ deadpans DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon, today his chief housecleaner.
No president, prime minister, autocrat, despot or democrat has ever taken the initiative to tell his people that his house has been invaded by thieves (in cahoots with insiders) and that he needs help badly.
The P1-trillion flood control scam or flood-gate is the single biggest act of corruption in our history. It has no precedent – in amount, in number of participants, in the assembly-line execution of the thievery, in the syndicated symphony of stealing and the outrageous greed and impunity.
PICC was, for a number of decades, the star of Asia’s then nascent MICE business – Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions. Take note: the Philippines had scored an unheard of 8.8 percent GDP growth in 1973 and repeated that same 8.8 percent in 1976 – the year PICC opened for business.
In the 1970s, says RTVM, president Ferdinand and first lady Imelda sought to place the nation on the world stage through culture, architecture and global dialogue. PICC was more than a building. It was the symbol of a nation’s ambition. It was the most modern convention center in Asia, ‘a milestone that declared to the world the Philippines is ready to lead.’
Not surprisingly, BBM was teary eyed and effusive at PICC’s reopening Tuesday.
‘As we look ahead, we recognize the PICC as a symbol of Filipino resilience and creativity,’ he enthused.
BBM thanked mom Imelda, ‘the guiding light, the inspiration, the – well, she’s not the architect but she was the one who put everything together.’
He thanked First Lady Liza, ‘who again has inherited [applause] the tradition of very quick construction projects that actually come in under budget. So, that is always something important to her Ilocano husband.’
When he and Liza toured the new PICC, BBM reminded her: ‘My mother doesn’t need a tour. She invented this.’
The President told his select inaugural guests: ‘As we open the newly renovated Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), we are revisiting a chapter of our nation’s history. We are gathered in a place where history was written, lives were celebrated, where the future will once again be shaped. Every brick, every beam, every hall of this building carries with it nearly five decades of stories.’
BBM said ‘within these halls, the world’s eyes turned to the Philippines as we hosted the Miss Universe pageant in 1994. The leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN gathered in 2017 to build the future of our region.’
‘But what makes the PICC truly special is not only the big moments that made the headlines. It is also the smaller, more personal moments – the ones that never made it to the front page but stayed forever in the hearts of the people. How many parents shed tears of joy as they watched their children receive their diplomas here? How many young professionals stood tall on this stage to swear their oaths, carrying with them both pride and responsibility?’
‘How many artists poured their hearts out in music, in dance, in painting and performances within these walls – only to find that the audience gave them something greater in return: appreciation, encouragement, love even?’
‘And how many couples have begun their journey together, as husbands and wives, while friends and family filled this place with laughter, and tears of joy? These are the memories that give life to PICC. These are the stories that turn a hall of concrete into a home of the Filipino spirit,’ related the President.
On its 50th in 2026, PICC hosts the ASEAN Summit.
Meanwhile, I texted Bangko Sentral Eli Remolona, chairman of the PICC board, to confirm with him the cost of the PICC renovation. No answer.
Was Gov Eli too busy wondering why corrupt senators and congressmen, DPWH engineers and contractors could withdraw billions in a week seamlessly, with gay abandon, from our lovely banking system while we, mortals, have to be interviewed by our bank branch manager on rare occasions we withdraw P500,000?
Has BSP been too lazy or too complicit in allowing the P1-trillion flood-gate, without the Anti-Money Laundering Council raising a whimper?
It would take a whole day for a bank branch to handle a withdrawal of P25 million. So if you withdraw P500 million, how many days would a bank branch take to count that money?
BSP is AMLC chair. Eli worked for 14 years in New York and also taught there. New York is the hotbed of the mafia for whom the $10,000-threshold or limit for moving cash was designed by anti-money launderers.