Planned demolition of envoy's house in Tokyo questioned

MANILA, Philippines - Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. has asked the committee on foreign relations to look into the legality of the planned demolition of the Philippine ambassador’s residence in Fujimi-Chiyoda-Ku (Kudan) in Tokyo, Japan.

Citing the report of the Philippines-Japan Society Inc. (PJSI) to the Philippine Ambassadors’ Foundation Inc. (PAFI), Pimentel said the Philippine government drew up an agreement with a Japanese real estate firm in 2008 to tear down the ambassador’s residence to make way for a 21-storey building, the penthouse of which will be the new ambassador’s residence.

Pimentel said the PJSI has clarified with the National Historical Institute (NHI) if the building is considered as a national landmark or historic edifice.

If it is indeed a national landmark, the consent of the NHI is needed to “modify, alter, repair, or destroy the original features of the edifice” pursuant to Section 5 of Presidential Decree 260.

Pimentel said the plan to tear down the building, considered the “most beautiful Philippine ambassador’s residence in the world,” is contrary to the policy of preserving the nation’s cultural heritage.

The property was purchased for the Philippines by former President Jose Laurel from Baron Zenjiro Yasuda when the Philippines was under Japanese rule during World War II.

On March 9, l952 the Philippine Historical Committee inaugurated the ambassador’s residence and installed a historical marker that reads: “The building, dating back from the Tokugawa Shogunte, was purchased for the Philippines on March 21, 1944 by President Jose P. Laurel of the Second Philippine Republic.”

In a letter to PAFI chair Alfonso Yuchengco, PJSI president Francis Laurel reported “there is a plan to materially alter the original features of the edifice by subjecting it to a public bidding regarding land lease development by a Japanese real estate developer.”

In filing Senate Resolution 1414, Pimentel argued that Presidential Decree 1505 amended Presidential Decree 260 which prohibits the unauthorized modification, alteration, repair and destruction of all original features of all national shrines, monuments, landmarks and other important edifices.

Yuchengco and PAFI president Macario Laurel IV called President Arroyo’s attention to the planned demolition in a letter dated June 6, 2008.

PAFI also questioned the propriety of transferring the ambassadorial residence to the penthouse of the proposed 21-storey building.