The Benpres Building (Tagalog: ''Gusaling Benpres''), originally known as the Chronicle Building, was a six-story Filipino modernist heritage building built in 1969 and inaugurated in 1971, located in
Ortigas Center,
Pasig
Pasig, officially the City of Pasig ( fil, Lungsod ng Pasig), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 803,159 people.
It is located along t ...
.
The building was designed by architect Gabriel Formoso and built in 1969 to serve as the new headquarters of the ''
Manila Chronicle''. The newspaper formally transferred to the building in February 1971 and the building was formally dedicated on April 2, 1971. However, President
Ferdinand Marcos' declaration of
Martial Law
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory.
Use
Marti ...
less than two years later saw the closure of the ''Chronicle'', and the newspaper did not return to the building even after Marcos was deposed. After the
People Power Revolution
The People Power Revolution, also known as the EDSA Revolution or the February Revolution, was a series of popular demonstrations in the Philippines, mostly in Metro Manila, from February 22 to 25, 1986. There was a sustained campaign of c ...
of 1986, the building was returned to the Lopez family and was renamed the Benpres Building after
Eugenio Lopez, Sr.'s parents—former Iloilo governor Benito López, and Presentación Hofileña López.
In 2016, the Lopez group of companies announced its intentions to redevelop the property on which the Benpres building stood, with two buildings planned to rise on the property.
The building was demolished in 2019.
References
{{coord missing, Philippines
Buildings and structures in Pasig
Ortigas Center
Buildings and structures completed in 1969
Demolished buildings and structures in the Philippines
Buildings and structures demolished in 2019