The Department of Interior and Local Goverment (DILG) will soon be housed at a newly constructed 27-storey ‘intelligent building’ in Quezon City.

This would mean Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas 2nd will no longer have to worry queuing for the long line for the elevator just to be at his office at the tenth floor of the Francisco Gold Condominium that houses the department along EDSA in Kamuning.

Soon Roxas and the entire DILG personnel along with the National Police Commission (Napolcom) would move in to a new 27-storey “intelligent building” at the corner of EDSA and Quezon Avenue. The building is already erected, ready for occupancy without any cash outlay from the department or Napolcom, giving also the DILG a relief from paying P4 million monthly in rent.

Napolcom’s Vice Chairman, Atty. Eduardo Escueta bared to The Manila Times that the building was a result of a joint agreement between Megaworld Corp., the Napolcom and the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) during the time of then Interior undersecretary Ronaldo “Ronie” Puno.

“Before I came in, in 2008, the joint venture was already hatched. It was the time of secretary Puno. Practically it was his project,” Escueta said.

He said that during the time, Napolcom owned over seven hectares of land at Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City, to which Puno bid out for its development—Megaworld Corp. of taipan Andrew Tan won the bidding and tied up with the BCDA.

“The area before only serves as our motor pool. As the joint agreement pushed through the BCDA administered the property, while Megaworld was tasked for its development like putting up some buildings for investment and make money for 50 years by virtue of usufruct,” Escueta explained.

He stressed that to compensate Napolcom as the equivalent rental for the vast land amounted to P2 billion, Megaworld offered to develop another property of Napolcom, the one at Quezon Ave. corner EDSA, which is over 2,000 square meters.

“This is where we gained. The building will house Napolcom and DILG plus 500 condominium units that our personnel can buy at a subsidized cost. Megaworld offered to erect the building, which is now in the finishing stages. No cash involved here. This is only a value for value swap,” Escueta said.

However, most of the Napolcom employees disagree with the supposed transfer of office, claiming that the commission has already given them their new homes in Taguig City and to work in Quezon City will incur them higher expenses in reporting for work for their transportation etc. They suggested that instead of Napolcom’s head office employees to transfer it is better for the commission to have its National Capital Region Office which rented a building as it office in Estrella, Makati be the ones to transfer at the Quezon City building to save cost.

He said that he had already talked to Secretary Roxas about the new building and discussed some plans for their future use.

“He [Roxas] already visited the building and we already discussed how we should allocate the floors. All systems are in place as we already talked on ways we can maximize effective use of the building. We may move in within the year. Internet friendly na rin ang building described by Megaworld as an ‘intelligent building’,” Escueta said.

He further explained that when the usufruct of Megaworld Corp. expired after 50 years Napolcom will again own the Fort Bonifacio land.

Escueta said that the tentative schedule of their transfer is on November 30.