The New Senate Complex in Bonifacio Global City (BGC), Taguig
The New Senate Complex in Bonifacio Global City (BGC), Taguig
Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™
October 12, 2026
Rigoberto Tiglao’s multi-year series of columns forms one of the most sustained journalistic critiques of a single Philippine government infrastructure project in recent decades.
Centered on the new Senate complex in Bonifacio Global City (BGC), Taguig, the articles trace a trajectory from an announced P4.58–4.8 billion project in 2018 to figures of P23.3 billion (and higher projections of P25–33 billion or more) by 2024–2025. Tiglao frames the episode as institutional “depravity”: elite profligacy, deliberate understatement of costs, misplaced national priorities, and the Senate’s failure to police itself.
Timeline of Cost Claims and Escalation
Tiglao’s early pieces (2018) challenged then-Senator Panfilo Lacson, the project’s chief proponent and Accounts Committee chair. Lacson publicly stated the AECOM design would cost P4.58 billion. Tiglao, citing construction industry sources and comparative projects (Iloilo Convention Center at roughly P64,000–86,000 per sqm adjusted, Makati City Hall Building II), argued that land acquisition alone (reported by Lacson at ~P1.8 billion from BCDA) plus structure, finishing, fixtures, and furnishings would push the total to at least P10 billion, and likely P12–15 billion or higher once escalations typical of Philippine government projects occurred.
By groundbreaking (2019), the core-and-shell contract with Hilmarc’s Construction Corp. was reported at approximately P8.067–8.9 billion (plus related multi-year obligational authority amounts). Tiglao repeatedly noted that this excluded interiors, furniture, security systems, and other fit-outs. During the COVID-19 period he urged scrapping or suspending the project to fund hospitals instead. Later columns (2021–2023) updated the projected total to around P12–15 billion.
In mid-2024, after a leadership change, Senate President Francis Escudero publicly expressed shock at a figure of P23.3 billion. Subsequent reviews under Accounts Committee chair Alan Peter Cayetano produced higher estimates: DPWH figures of P25–27 billion (accounting for inflation and material costs), independent estimates reaching ~P31.6–33 billion including remaining works, land, and furnishings. Construction was temporarily suspended for review amid variation orders, procurement delays, and quality concerns. Tiglao’s July 2024 column titled “The depravity that is the new Senate building” summarized the arc—from Lacson’s P4.6 billion claim, through intermediate figures, to the P23 billion+ reality—and suggested it could still climb toward P30 billion.
The pattern Tiglao documents is classic for large Philippine public works: lowball initial estimates to secure approval, followed by variation orders, design changes, material-price escalations, and incomplete scope definitions (core-and-shell versus fully fitted). A 385% rise from the 2018 public figure is extreme even by local standards.
Core Arguments in Tiglao’s Critique
1. Deliberate or negligent understatement
Lacson and later defenders (including then-Accounts chair Nancy Binay) treated the early low figure as applying only to “core and shell,” while the public was given the impression of a complete project cost. Tiglao analogizes this to selling a house and then adding the land price at closing. He notes that ordinary construction experience would have flagged the original number as unrealistic for an 86,000–90,000 sqm complex of four towers in a premium location with 1,200+ parking spaces.
2. Opportunity cost and hypocrisy on sovereignty
Parallel columns repeatedly contrast the billions allocated to senatorial offices with the minimal spending on the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG)/Spratlys. Tiglao points to Vietnam’s extensive reclamation and fortified outposts, China’s artificial islands, and Malaysia’s development of Swallow Reef, versus the Philippines’ limited repairs to the Pag-asa airstrip and modest new barracks (sometimes funded from confidential funds at ~P50 million scale). He argues that the same money could have produced durable fortifications, airstrips capable of handling larger aircraft, and visible presence—actions that would have carried more weight than rhetorical defense of “sovereignty.”
3. Institutional culture
The Senate is portrayed as an “exclusive club” operating on mutual non-interference rather than partisan or ideological accountability. Few senators publicly questioned the project for years. Tiglao links this to the absence of strong party discipline and the prevalence of “scratch-my-back” legislative bargaining. He also notes the contractor Hilmarc’s earlier association with the controversial Makati City Hall project, raising (without direct accusation) the traditional risks of large public contracts: subcontractor commissions, variation-order padding, and weak oversight when the client is the legislature itself.
4. COVID and fiscal context
Construction continued through the pandemic and recession. Tiglao called this tone-deaf when hospitals and economic recovery were urgent, and when the national deficit had widened sharply.
Counterpoints and Defenses
Lacson and allies maintained that the original AECOM figure was fact-based, that the Senate had long paid high rent (~P127 million/year to GSIS), that a permanent home was needed, and that later cost increases reflected legitimate fit-outs, land, security systems, pandemic disruptions, and inflation. Binay emphasized that senators received briefings and that core-and-shell was always understood as a distinct phase. DPWH attributed part of the rise to approved design revisions (additional rooms, ducting, air-conditioning, etc.). No formal finding of criminal corruption has been issued in the public record summarized here; the 2024–2025 reviews focused on process, variations, and cost control.
Tiglao’s response is that even accepting those explanations, the magnitude of the overrun, the opacity of early public communications, and the priority given to luxury offices over territorial infrastructure remain indefensible.
Broader Significance
Tiglao’s series is less a single exposé of proven kickbacks than a longitudinal case study of how elite institutions set and then evade their own fiscal discipline. The building’s location in one of Metro Manila’s most expensive commercial districts, its scale relative to the 24-member Senate (compared, for example, with Vietnam’s National Assembly building that houses far more legislators at lower cost), and the contrast with under-developed outposts in the West Philippine Sea crystallize his larger thesis: Philippine politics often privileges the comfort and prestige of the political class over strategic or developmental necessities.
Whether the final completed cost settles closer to P23 billion, P30 billion, or higher, the documentary record Tiglao assembled—early lowball claims, progressive upward revisions, and consistent opportunity-cost arguments—stands as a detailed public accounting of how a “monument to profligacy” was sold, expanded, and defended. The Senate’s willingness (or reluctance) to subject its own project to the same rigorous scrutiny it applies to other agencies remains the open institutional test his columns pose.
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Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™' s connection to the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) serves as a defining pillar of his professional journey, most recently celebrated through the launch of the ACC Global Alumni Network.As a 2003 Starr Foundation Grantee, Roldan participated in a transformative ten-month fellowship in the United States. This opportunity allowed him to observe contemporary art movements, engage with an international community of artists and curators, and develop a new body of work that bridges local and global perspectives.Featured Work: Bridges Beyond Borders His featured work, Bridges Beyond Borders: ACC's Global Cultural Collaboration, has been chosen as the visual identity for the newly launched ACC Global Alumni Network.Symbol of Connection: The piece represents a private collaborative space designed to unite over 6,000 ACC alumni across various disciplines and regions.Artistic Vision: The work embodies the ACC's core mission of advancing international dialogue and cultural exchange to foster a more harmonious world.Legacy of Excellence: By serving as the face of this initiative, Roldan's art highlights the enduring impact of the ACC fellowship on his career and his role in the global artistic community.Just featured at https://www.pressenza.com/2026/01/the-asian-cultural-council-global-alumni-network-amiel-gerald-a-roldan/
He is a Filipino multidisciplinary visual artist, printmaker, painter, independent curator, researcher, writer, and cultural worker whose practice spans contemporary art, curatorial work, and cultural advocacy. He has been active in the Philippine art scene since the late 1990s and has worked with galleries, museums, artist-run spaces, and international cultural organizations.
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A multidisciplinary Filipino artist, poet, researcher, and cultural worker whose practice spans painting, printmaking, photography, installation, and writing. He is deeply rooted in cultural memory, postcolonial critique, and in bridging creative practice with scholarly infrastructure—building counter-archives, annotating speculative poetry like Southeast Asian manuscripts, and fostering regional solidarity through ethical art collaboration.
He has been active in the Philippine art scene since the late 1990s and has worked with galleries, museums, artist-run spaces, and international cultural organizations.His practice appears to represent several interconnected concerns:
Cultural work as artistic practice. Roldan has argued that the labor of curating, organizing exhibitions, teaching, documentation, and cultural administration should be understood as creative work rather than merely support work. This perspective has been reflected in his writings and exhibitions.
Social and political engagement. His artworks frequently address politics, religion, faith, denial, courage, social inequality, and the everyday experiences of Filipinos. He has stated that he draws inspiration from Filipino cultural practices while approaching painting, printmaking, and installation from a conceptual perspective.Printmaking and conceptual art. Roldan is particularly recognized for his printmaking, with works shown internationally, including exhibitions in Japan and France. His practice also encompasses painting, photography, installation, and curatorial research.International cultural exchange. A significant milestone in his career was receiving an Asian Cultural Council fellowship in 2003, which enabled him to undertake research and create work in the United States while engaging with artists and curators internationally.
More broadly, Roldan's work represents an attempt to bridge artistic production, curatorial practice, scholarship, and cultural activism . His writings often emphasize postcolonial discourse, cultural memory, and the ethics of artistic collaboration, positioning the artist not only as a maker of objects but also as a builder of cultural infrastructure.
In the Philippine contemporary art context, he can be understood as representing the figure of the artist-curator-cultural worker —someone who contributes both through making artworks and through developing exhibitions, mentoring artists, and fostering institutional and independent cultural initiatives.
Recent show at ILOMOCA
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