The Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) will be close for two years starting January 1, 2023 to undergo renovation and retrofitting.

During a Senate committee hearing Thursday, CCP President Margie Moran said: “I’d like to announce also, that CCP is closing its doors on January 2023 because we are renovating the whole building and structurally retrofitting. So we need more funds than we expected because we did not expect to move out.”

Moran said they found out that structural retrofitting was needed when they started opening the Little Theater.

“The whole staff is moving out next year,” she said.

Senator Loren Legarda asked Moran if the transfer of CCP was included in the National Expenditure Program (NEP).

“It is, but not enough because we did not know that we all had to move out all at the same time by floor,” Moran said.

CCP chairman Jaime Laya said they are not sure if the P400-million budget will be enough to fix the building which is in a “terrible condition”.

“The building is in terrible condition. It's 53 years old. Its ceiling is concrete but the ceiling is leaking in the main lobby. So the 400 million (pesos) that is already budgeted is even a preliminary figure because we don't know what kind of structural defects exist,” Laya said.

Speaking to the CCP executives, Legarda said, "So first, there’s an urgent need for physical rehabilitation of the infrastructure of the Cultural Center. And second, that there’s a proposed moving out by January of next year. And you already have various areas where the departments will be moving to but the lease and transfer have not been incorporated in the NEP. It's good that we know now."

Moran said they will start to move out by November, using part of their corporate funds, so that CCP could close by January. Jaspearl Tan/DMS