Supreme Court wants out of Faura, transfer to Fort Bonifacio

The Supreme Court has confirmed plans to move out of its Padre Faura Street compound in Ermita, Manila, to Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The Supreme Court has confirmed plans to move out of its Padre Faura Street compound in Ermita, Manila, to Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City.

“There’s a plan but we don’t know the timetable yet. The funding is being secured for that through the [2015] budget,” lawyer Theodore Te, the high court’s spokesman and public information chief, told reporters last week.

“We don’t have our own building. That’s the reason for the transfer,” Te added.

He said the transfer was approved last year by the justices and noted architect and urban planner Felino Palafox was being considered to design the high court’s compound in Fort Bonifacio.

The location of the Supreme Court building on Padre Faura led to the justices being dubbed the “gods of Padre Faura.”

Budget hearing

During last week’s hearing of the House committee on appropriations on the judiciary’s proposed budget for 2015, officials of the high tribunal mentioned a proposal submitted to the Department of Budget and Management for the purchase of a 21,000-square-meter lot in Fort Bonifacio for P1.28 billion, payable in 10 years, with an annual amortization of P128 million.

The court officials did not say exactly where in Fort Bonifacio the new building would be constructed. Most of Fort Bonifacio has been privately developed as Bonifacio Global City. The areas still controlled by the national government host the Philippine Army and Marine Corps headquarters, Libingan ng mga Bayani and the Southern Police District, among other entities.

The proposal for a new building was included in the P32.6-billion proposed budget originally submitted to Malacañang by the high court.

But the executive branch cut this down to P20.28-billion, or about 30- percent less than the Supreme Court’s request.

New justice hall

Apart from a new Supreme Court building, the judiciary also proposed the construction of a P3-billion state-of-the-art Manila Hall of Justice for the dozens of regional and metropolitan trial courts currently housed at Manila City Hall.

Based on the proposed budget submitted by Malacañang to Congress, the Supreme Court’s budget next year represents 0.65 percent of the total proposed national budget of P2.606 trillion—the lowest percentage in many years.

The judiciary’s P18.560-billion budget this year, in comparison, represents about 0.8 percent of the national budget.–Jerome Aning