Senate building delayed by 852 days; not due to ongoing review: DPWH

MANILA – The construction of the multi-billion Senate building in Taguig City has been delayed by 852 days, with no specific completion date as of yet, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) confirmed Wednesday.

In a Senate Committee on Accounts hearing chaired by Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, DPWH Buildings and Special Projects Management Cluster (BSPMC) Project Director Soledad Florencio said the "extension of time" for the project was at 852 days but only due to "variation orders".

"Dahil sa mga approved variation orders meron po iyong kaakibat na time extensions so for now po as presented sa aming accomplishment positive pa po ang aming slippage (Because of the approved variation orders there are also corresponding time extensions so for now as presented in our accomplishment report, our slippage is still positive)," she said.

Meanwhile, she clarified that both Cayetano nor Senate President Francis Escudero had no hand in the project delay.

Senate President Francis Escudero earlier ordered the suspension of the construction work on the new Senate building for a comprehensive review and concerns over its escalating costs.

Initially budgeted at P8.9 billion, Escudero earlier said the project cost has ballooned to P13 billion, with an additional P10 billion required for completion.

At the hearing, Cayetano said the current project cost, based on the submissions of Senator Nancy Binay and Senator Panfilo Lacson's staff, totals P23.379 billion, at least P8.9 billion of which was for the building's core and shell, P2.5 billion for the fit-out, P10.33 billion for the works to complete, while P1.6 billion was for the land acquisition.

Cayetano and Senator Nancy Binay, meanwhile, engaged in a heated exchange over the presentation of the building construction cost, which the latter argued was only P21.73 billion excluding the amount of land at P1.6 billion.

"The mere fact na pinutok nila 'yong amount, 'di ko alam kung ano intensyon talaga," Binay said in an interview after she walked out of the hearing (The mere fact that the amount was brought up, I don't know what the intention is anymore)," she said in a separate interview.

"Hindi ba ang linaw ng topic, cost of the construction of the building, so dapat ang ini-input lang natin 'yong ano ba 'yong bahagi doon sa pagpa-patayo ng building, kaso sinama nila 'yong land (Isn't the topic clear, cost of the construction of the building, so the input should only be what is for the construction but they included the land acquisition cost)," she explained.

Cayetano, for his part, argued that it was the staff of Binay who submitted the breakdown.

At the hearing, he accused Binay of sitting on the P600 million landscape plan of the building, which he said has been pending since 2023 while the latter was still the chair of the Senate Committee on Accounts.

Binay denied this, saying her office had been conducting a thorough review of it as often as twice a week.

Cayetano also alleged that Binay was politicizing the review by trying to connect it to the Makati-Taguig rivalry. (PNA)