THE historic National Museum of Philippines building will be the venue for the oath-taking of President-elect Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos, Jr. as the country’s 17th President on June 30, 2022.
Formerly known as the Old Legislative Building, it has served as the venue for the inauguration of former Presidents Manuel L. Quezon (1935), Jose P. Laurel (1943), and Manuel Roxas (1946).
Former Manila Representative and now Presidential Management Staff (PMS) Secretary-designate Zenaida “Naida” Angping said that the inaugural committee members had recently conducted an ocular inspection of the area and found it to be a suitable venue.
“The National Museum of Philippines building and its surrounding areas match our requirements for President-elect Marcos’s inauguration. Preparations are already in full swing to ensure that it will be ready by then,” Angping said.
Designed by the Bureau of Public Works (predecessor of the DPWH) in 1918 as the new home of the National Library of the Philippines, construction work was completed in 1926.
In 1935, it served as the venue for the proclamation of the Philippine Commonwealth and was subsequently known as the National Assembly Building.
It was destroyed during World War II and underwent a massive reconstruction from 1949 to 1950.
It housed Congress until it was shut down during martial law. After the Edsa revolt in 1986, the House of Representatives moved to the Batasan building in Quezon City, while the revived Philippine Senate stayed at the original legislative building in Manila until the 1990s when the Senate moved to its current venue in Pasay City, on a building owned by GSIS.
Angping said that while the committee considered the Quirino Grandstand a potential venue for the inauguration, the committee’s ocular inspection team observed that there were still several Covid-19 field hospitals in the area.
“The safety and welfare of our people are paramount. As such, we chose to avoid disrupting the medical care being given to the Covid-19 patients housed there. That’s why we opted for the National Museum as the venue,” Angping added.
Marcos, who was proclaimed President-elect by Congress on May 25th after winning the 2022 national elections via landslide, has vowed to “hit the ground running” as he started to appoint key cabinet members.
Last Sunday, news reports said that the President-elect’s camp was considering three venues for his June 30th inauguration: Quirino Grandstand, Fort Santiago, and the National Museum.
Quirino Grandstand holds a special significance as it was the venue where the President-elect’s father Ferdinand Sr. had his inauguration as the country’s 10th President in 1965.