Senate eyeing UP Diliman campus for its permanent home, says Drilon

Protesters would certainly find it more convenient. The Senate is considering moving to the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman campus in Quezon City.

 

During a weekly forum at the Senate on Thursday, Senator Franklin Drilon said Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile has authorized him and Senators Pia Cayetano and Ferdinand Marcos Jr., as a committee, to start examining the possibility of moving to a new site, with UP Diliman as one possibility because of its location.  

"We are paying about P110 million annually as rental to the GSIS and this is not really an edifice originally built to house a legislative body," he said. "Now, we will be examining the possibility of transferring to UP Diliman. We will be having our own building. That’s public land. We can just use it or buy it," said Drilon. The lower house is located at the Batasan complex, close to the sprawling 493-hectare UP Diliman campus in Quezon City. The Senate would be competing with both academe and business for the remaining empty space on the campus. Nearly 38 hectares of the campus across Commonwealth Avenue are already reserved for technology companies leasing land from UP, while the university itself is experiencing a construction boom, with some buildings nearing completion and others still in the planning stages.

 

When the Philippine Congress was restored by President Corazon Aquino in 1987, a year after the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos who had abolished the bicameral legislature when he declared Martial Law, the Senate occupied the old Finance building along Padre Burgos street in Manila for some time. The building is now part of the National Museum complex. The upper chamber is currently housed at the financial center of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) along Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City.

 

He said the senators initially looked at the Film Center in Pasay City as a possible site, but they had questions regarding its "structural capability."

 

Drilon said they also looked into the possibility of moving to the Post Office building in Manila but it was too large, it was located in an often traffic-clogged district beside the Pasig River, and the area was prone to flooding.

 

He said they also considered moving to the Batasan complex, where the Senate was originally housed, but the area they occupied there was too small.

 

"One of the considerations is kailangan malapit sa House... kasi mahirap ang trabaho, mahirap ang coordination," Drilon said. "No decision has been made. It’s in a preliminary stage. We have not gone beyond examining options." —VS/YA/HS, GMA News