Senate seeks immediate restoration of fire-hit Manila Post Office building
The Senate wants fire-hit Manila Post Office building restored as soon as possible.
This came after Sen. Juan Edgardo "Sonny" M. Angara, chairman of the Senate finance committee, revealed that Senate President Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri sent a message to him asking "that we have to work with the budget department towards finding funds to help restore the Post office."
"(I) Agree …it’s a national treasure - designed by national artist Juan Arellano,’’ Angara said in a text message to Senate reporters on Monday, May 22.
Malacañang is expected to send to Congress the proposed 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP) days or weeks after President President Ferdinand "Bongbong" R. Marcos Jr. has delivered his "State of the Nation Address" (SONA) on the fourth Monday of July.
The Senate and the House of Representatives send their mails free through the Manila Post Office because they enjoy a franking privilege.
In the US, franking privilege is a particular privilege that members of Congress and certain other select groups of people have that allows them to send mail free of charge.
In a related development, Senate Majority Leader Loren Legarda called on authorities to investigate the cause of the fire that hit the iconic Manila Post Office building so that its occurrence would never happen again.
Legarda, chairperson of the Senate culture and arts committee, said that historical sites such as "this significant architectural inheritance" must be protected.
"I am deeply saddened by the news that the Manila Central Post Office, one of the historic buildings in the country and declared an Important Cultural Property (ICP), was engulfed by a massive fire that started late night Sunday," she emphasized.
"Having been built in 1926, this building is one of the oldest and most iconic structures in the Philippines that has been an essential part of our history, surviving many calamities and the Battle of Manila during World War II," she said.
Legarda pointed out that before the fire incident, the decades-old structure still provided postal services besides operating a museum.
"It is indeed a tragic and heartbreaking incident," she stressed.