City donates land to replace quake-hit Hall of Justice

By Joseph Bernard A. Marzan

ILOILO CITY — “A new home for the rule of law.”

This was how the Iloilo City government described its donation of 7,000 square meters of city-owned land to the Philippine Judiciary and the Department of Justice for a complex that will replace the ailing Chief Justice Ramon Q. Avanceña Hall of Justice.

Of the total, 4,000 square meters went to the judiciary.

The remaining 3,000 square meters will host the offices of the regional, city, and provincial prosecutors.

The city government also signed separate memoranda of agreement carrying a commitment that the donated property must be used within five years.

The property sits in Barangay San Pedro in Molo district, near the city-owned parcel that also hosts the Commission on Elections integrated field office, the city molecular laboratories, and the city hospital now under construction.

Informal settler families living on the site will be relocated before any construction begins.

Treñas-Chu led the signing of the two deeds of donation with Justice Secretary Fredderick Vida and Court Administrator Ma. Theresa Dolores Gomez-Estoesta, timed to coincide with the city’s 89th Charter Day celebration.

The Sangguniang Panlungsod granted the mayor authority to sign the deeds in its Aug. 19 session.

The donation follows months of disruption for the justice sector in Iloilo City, where a series of earthquakes beginning in September 2025 compromised the structural integrity of the Hall of Justice.

Regional Trial Court offices and courtrooms have since moved either to the smaller Hall of Justice annex or to the adjacent Castle Chateau Hotel.

Prosecutors and lawyers from the Public Attorney’s Office, meanwhile, have continued to accept clients and filings at the main building under limited capacity.

The building is named after Ramon Q. Avanceña, the Molo-born jurist who served as Chief Justice of the Philippines from 1925 to 1941, and it has served as the main seat of the city’s trial courts and prosecution offices.

In her message, Treñas-Chu underscored the importance of proper facilities for the justice system.

“It can be a place where a family finds resolution, where a person’s rights are protected, and where due process is upheld, and where the law provides access to someone who needs it the most,” the mayor said.

“That is why we want this future Hall of Justice and prosecution complex to be more than just functional spaces. We want them to become institution that brings justice closer, make government more responsive, [and] answer our people with dignity,” she added.

Vida, in his acceptance message, called the donation timely and cited the need for quality facilities.

“The donated property comes at a crucial time — providing the foundation upon which we can build the facilities that will enable our justice workers to serve the public more effectively,” the justice secretary said.

“The envisioned Iloilo justice complex is more than a collection of offices and buildings. It represents our shared aspiration to create a modern, accessible, and integrated environment for the administration of justice — one where institutions can work together more efficiently, and where the public can obtain justice with greater ease, dignity, and confidence,” he added.

Gomez-Estoesta, for her part, recalled the September earthquake as a “baptism of fire,” noting that she had been appointed court administrator that same month.

She and her team have travelled to Iloilo five times while working to secure a new site for the Hall of Justice.

“Only a few days after the earthquake, my team and I came to Iloilo. We needed to be here with our judges and court personnel to see our courts for ourselves and let our people know that the Supreme Court is here with them. That first visit stayed with me,” she narrated.

She said the repeated meetings with city officials, which she and the mayor both described as a “courtship,” produced the solution.

“Despite the details to work through, and the questions to answer throughout that process, one thing remained constant – our shared commitment to give the people of Iloilo courts that are safe, dignified, accessible, and worthy of our trust,” she added.