After nearly three decades of renting its offices at the Government Service Insurance System complex in Pasay City, the Philippine Senate is finally preparing to move into a permanent home of its own in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City.
The transfer is being eyed for 2027, although given the history of the project, I wouldn’t put money on that date just yet. My wife, who works at the Senate and is due to retire in two years, isn’t even sure she’ll get to work in the new building before she calls it a career.
In November 2017, when 14 senators voted to relocate to Taguig, Senator Panfilo Lacson announced that construction could begin in 2018 and be completed by 2020.
Well, it’s almost 2027.
The Senate has been looking for a permanent home for years. Among the locations considered were the Batasan Pambansa Complex in Quezon City, a property in Antipolo, an area inside the University of the Philippines, and the historic Manila Central Post Office.
There was also a proposal to return to the Old Congress Building on Burgos Street in Manila, where the Senate had its offices before transferring to the GSIS complex.
I worked there in 1991, fresh out of college, in my first job with Senator Edgardo Angara. It was the post-Edsa Congress. The Senate then shared the Old Congress Building with the National Museum. The old building had character, with its grand halls, high ceilings and the sort of atmosphere one would expect from a building with more than a century of history.
The rented GSIS facility, as former President Joseph Estrada once remarked, looked more like a bank.
The Senate also considered a building practically next door to its present headquarters.
The Manila Film Center.
In 2009, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Senators Edgardo Angara and Juan Miguel Zubiri pursued the possibility of transferring the Senate to the Film Center. Zubiri held negotiations with officials of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, which administered the property.
There were objections. Senator Aquilino ‘Nene’ Pimentel Jr. questioned the building’s structural condition and the cost of converting it into a legislative headquarters. The Film Center was considered too small to accommodate the Senate’s requirements. He also preferred a permanent site where the Senate and House of Representatives could be housed together.
Some Senate employees had another concern.
They were afraid to move there.
They had heard stories about the experiences of Department of Foreign Affairs personnel who once worked inside the Film Center.
During the administration of President Corazon Aquino, the DFA operated its consular and passport offices there. Employees reportedly experienced strange occurrences. Typewriters were heard clicking away in empty offices at night. There were accounts of footsteps in deserted corridors and noises coming from rooms where nobody was working. Some employees were said to have been frightened enough to request transfers.
The DFA eventually vacated the building following the July 1990 Luzon earthquake, which damaged the structure.
The Film Center was conceived as part of then First Lady Imelda Marcos’ ambition to turn Manila into the Cannes of Asia. Designed by architect Froilan Hong, it was intended to host the first Manila International Film Festival in January 1982.
Construction began in August 1981. Thousands of workers labored in shifts to finish the massive structure in time for the festival.
At around 3 a.m. on November 17, 1981, scaffolding collapsed while workers were pouring concrete. Steel, timber and wet cement came crashing down on the laborers below.
How many died remains disputed. Official accounts put the death toll at seven, while contemporary reports cited workers who said at least 26 had died. Over the years, stories circulated that 168 or 169 workers had perished, some supposedly buried in the concrete foundations so construction could continue.
Those larger figures and claims of bodies deliberately entombed in concrete have never been conclusively established.
The Film Center opened in time for the January 1982 festival.
My first visit to the Manila Film Center was on Halloween night in 1987. Some of my freshman blockmates at nearby De La Salle University and I had decided to go ghost hunting. At least, that was the original plan.
At the Film Center, we parked my father’s Toyota Corona and walked around until a security guard shooed us away. It was uneventful.
We drove to Balete Drive in Quezon City, hoping to catch a glimpse of the famous white lady. Nothing.
We headed back to Manila, to Intramuros, checking out Fort Santiago, San Agustin Church, Manila Cathedral and the streets around the old walled city. No luck there either.
By then we had given up on ghosts and headed for Mabini and Ermita, which were considerably livelier after dark.
This was Manila in the late 1980s, when the American military bases were still operating in the Philippines. Mabini and the surrounding streets were full of bars, nightclubs, American servicemen, foreign tourists and the businesses that catered to them.
We ended up at the Australian Club and later at Rosie’s Diner on M.H. del Pilar Street.
Years later, one of those college buddies and I returned to the Film Center for drinks at a bar near the top of its imposing entrance steps. The bar was associated with the Amazing Show, a theatrical production featuring transgender performers that operated inside the building.
After a few beers, of course, you had to use the restroom.
The restrooms were inside the Film Center, quite a walk through barely lit hallways. The bathroom itself was spacious, with mirrors everywhere. It was eerie enough without having to imagine ghosts.
My friend, a 6-foot-3 former Green Archer, used the restroom once and refused to go back inside, preferring the bushes thereafter.
I was too buzzed to care. I went back again and again and returned to my beer without incident.
The Film Center is still there.
I sometimes take Noona, our Dachshund, for a walk around the place while waiting to pick up my wife from work at the Senate.
The grounds are also a gathering place for protesters. During the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte, rallyists routinely assemble in the area before marching to the Senate, with supporters and opponents of her impeachment making their feelings known.
There’s even a Korean restaurant at the Film Center where I’ve eaten. It’s not bad.
After all these years, I still haven’t seen a ghost there.