Iloilo media finally gets own building

Finally, the Iloilo Press Club has a home.

Donated by businessman-philanthropist Rommel Ynion, the Iloilo Press Club Building is an answer to decades of yearning by Ilonggo journalists for Iloilo’s Fourth Estate to have a home of its own. 

The IPC Building is finally ready for occupancy and appropriate blessings and ribbon cutting ceremonies are expected to be held soon.

The three-storey building with roofdeck, will not just be a haven for the Ilonggo media and their comrades from other parts of the country, it will also stand as a bulwark of the Fourth Estate’s collective struggle for truth, for freedom and justice throughout generations, said Ynion who is himself a journalist. 

Elected president of the Iloilo Press Club, Ynion is the former publisher of The News Today, one of three daily regional newspapers based in Iloilo City. 

He established his media “creds” as editor of the Manila Bulletin (Obituary Section) and, later, the Philippine Star directly under the legendary publisher-editor-columnist Max Soliven.

The IPC Building, already reputed to be one of the best press club buildings in the country, was designed by Oscar Penasales, winner of the Metrobank Art and Design Excellence (MADE) Architecture Competition in 2011.

Penasales described the façade of the building as the “opened pages of a newspaper,” the image symbolizing the media profession and, indirectly, an homage to the Iloilo Press Club’s roots as an organization of print journalists or newspapermen. It also calls to mind the legacy of the Ilonggo national hero and propagandist Graciano Lopez-Jaena.   

Ynion spent about P25 million from out of his own pocket for the construction of the building on a 300 square meter lot donated by the Iloilo City Government during the tenure of then Mayor Mansueto Malabor. The ground floor of the building will be rentable space, the proceeds of which will go the cost of maintenance. The second and third floors as well as the roofdeck will be reserved for use of the Iloilo media and guests.*