Supreme Court Associate Justice Midas Marquez — File photo by Lyn Rillon | Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines — Twelve years after its eighth groundbreaking, the bidding for the Manila City Hall of Justice construction will probably be in the first quarter of 2025, Associate Justice Jose Midas Marquez said.
“That’s a long-standing project. So, we’re beginning to see some movement,” Marquez, who is part of the committee overseeing the project, told reporters in a mix of Filipino and English during the Supreme Court’s “Meet the Press.”
The bidding and construction were supposed to be in 2019 but were halted following flows in the original building plan.
“Hopefully, by the first quarter of next year, the bidding process for construction will probably start as we already have a conceptual design,” Marquez said.
READ: Senate panel approves 14 bills seeking to create new courts nationwide
The plan to build a hall of justice in Manila started as early as 1982 encountered several problems, including the location.
Originally, the location was supposed to be the 6,470-square-meter lot on Taft Avenue where the old Jai-alai building used to stand, but it was then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued a proclamation transferring the Arroceros lot (the site of the old GSIS building) to the Supreme Court.
The site is the 10,000-square-meter structure across the Manila City Hall.
Marquez said it was discovered that the design of the building had flaws. So a redesign was conducted.
The current conceptual design “was approved already by the justices,” he said.
He said the new design would preserve the facade of the old GSIS building. It will house over 80 regional trial courts and 30 metropolitan trial courts.
Currently, the country’s capital has no hall of justice. Unlike other cities where courthouses are in one building, in Manila, it is spread out in three locations — Manila City Hall, the old Ombudsman building, and the former Masagana Complex on Kalaw Street.