Quezon City gov’t to destroy, rebuild Quezon house

TREES partly shield from view President Manuel L. Quezon’s house on Gilmore Avenue in Quezon City. The 500-sqm structure will soon be torn down and rebuilt at Quezon Memorial Circle following the sale of the lot it stands on. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

An exact replica of President Manuel L. Quezon’s house on Gilmore Avenue in Quezon City will soon be built at Quezon Memorial Circle.

City planning and development office chief Tomasito Cruz said that the Quezon City government had already allocated a budget of P9.943 million for the project, which is expected to start in the early part of 2013.

“Except for the swimming pool, all structural parts of the ancestral house of the Quezon family shall be reconstructed and rebuilt by the city government,” Cruz added.

The 500-sqm house is where Quezon stayed for two months while he was recuperating from tuberculosis in the 1930s. Although it has not been officially declared by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) a heritage site, Mayor Herbert Bautista has expressed interest in preserving it as part of the city’s historical heritage.

The NHCP previously said that the Quezon-Avanceña home has “no major or significant association with the political or personal life of President Quezon” and fell short of the requirements that could qualify it as a heritage site.

The late president’s house, a two-story colonial-style residential structure built on the 3,678-sqm Quezon-Avanceña property on Gilmore Avenue, was donated to the city government after the lot it is sitting on was sold in August last year.

Cruz explained that the new owner of the property, Zenara Holdings Corp., had turned over the house to the city government.

“Since they have no use for the old house, the new owner decided to just donate the house to the city,” he said in a statement.

The city government has started looking for a contractor to carry out the project.