The Star ‘legacy’ dream
It is a great relief to all of us residing in southern Metro Manila when our newspaper The Philippine Star moved over to the Amvel compound in Barangay San Dionisio in Sucat, Paranaque City. Naturally, because majority of The STAR employees live and commute daily in the most traffic-prone parts of the national capital region to reach our erstwhile office in Port Area in Manila.
The choice of our new office site was actually based on the internal survey done by the Management headed by our The Star president and chief executive officer Miguel G. Belmonte – or MGB as we fondly address him. MGB wanted a site that will be “commuter-friendly” to most of STAR employees.
“So they won’t have a hard time coming to work and going home,” MGB was quoted saying by Teresa “Tammy” Mendoza, our vice president for operations. From the survey results, it showed majority of the more than 700 employees live in southern Metro Manila. Partly because The STAR has company-assisted low-cost housing sites in Laguna and Cavite.
The transfer of The STAR was conceived before the COVID-19 pandemic period in 2020. Construction of the two buildings started in March 2021, or two years after the lot was purchased from the Amvel Land Development Corp. Last week, we moved to our new four-story building with glass walls as well as an annex structure connected by a bridgeway leading to the printing machines.
There are a lot of finishing touches still being done by the CT Consigna Construction Corp. that erected the twin buildings of The STAR as conceptualized by architect Zoilo Amador of the Design Group. Pouring back its earnings through the years and without borrowing, at least P800 million was spent to construct The STAR edifice. It might likely hit P1 billion for the other improvements still being made around the 4,714-square meter lot area.
For a week now, we have been holding offices in our brand new buildings. It proudly stands out in the middle of the soon-to-be-completed C5 Southlink.
Led by MGB, we paid a courtesy call on former Paranaque City Mayor and now Congressman Edwin Olivarez in his office at City Hall last Thursday. During our brief visit, Rep. Olivarez happily pointed out how
