New city hall seen early next year
Iloilo City may have a new city hall early next year if work on the seven-storey government structure will proceed as scheduled.
In fact, contractor F.F. Cruz & Co. Inc. has reported to Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog that the construction is “ahead of schedule.”
“If things go as planned and there are no hitches, we can have the new city hall by February 2011,” Mabilog said in a press briefing.
The original schedule of completion of the P368-million edifice is June next year. The groundbreaking was done in February this year.
According to the report, “bored piling is now almost 80 percent, and building of the foundation and columns will commence soon after.”
Mabilog said he has proposed some modifications to the project plan like doing away with a third floor parking and utilizing it instead as an office space.
The sixth and seventh floors will no longer have an elevator.
Instead, Mabilog said he is proposing that the city buy properties near the site for parking spaces.
Located beside the Plaza Libertad, also the site of the old city hall, the new government building was designed by W.V. Coscolluela and Associates.
Its design is a combination of the historical iconic structures in the city such as the Masonic Temple Building in Plaza Libertad, the Aduana or the Customs House, and the older Iloilo City Hall, now the University of the Philippines-Visayas Library Building.
At present, the Iloilo City Government is housed at the third floor of Robinsons Place, with other offices in the nearby Angeles Arcade, and the offices under the Sangguniang Panlungsod at the Iloilo Terminal Market building.
