TVT Building (Manila)

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  Jose R. Perdigon (guest)

  A building in Sta Cruz, Manila, that used to be the office of The Manila Times in the mid-1940s has been restored and is now being rented out as residential apartments. Not a lot is known about this Neo-Gothic building on Florentino Torres Street other than it was already around before the 1940s. The new owner, GSMS Property Holding, has kept some of the original architectural details — exterior lamps and carved gables above the entrances, the inner courtyard, original windows in some of the rooms — as well as the building's original name, TVT. TVT stands for the three main publications of Don Alejandro Roces — Tribune, La Vanguardia and Taliba. He was publishing these titles before acquiring The Manila Times, the nation's oldest existing English language daily, from its British owner before the war. After the war Don Alejandro’s son Joaquin "Chino" took over the company. Among the changes he instituted was to drop Tribune from the company’s portfolio in favor of The Manila Times. From TVT, the corporation was renamed The Manila Times Publishing Co. TVT's ground floor tenants are mostly electrical supplies shops. The upper three floors have been converted into 36 apartments or twelve units per floor. There are no modern amenities like a gym or a pool, and tenants have to sort out their own cable and WiFi connections but it does offer one thing that modern buildings can't: a slice of history. Before newspapers transferred their offices to the Port Area, they were either along Escolta, in Binondo or Sta Cruz. On Florentino Torres Street, where TVT is located, were International News Service and Associated Press, Daily Mirror and Bulletin, according to a member of the Facebook group Manila Nostalgia, who says he got the information from the novelist F. Sionil Jose and late statesman Blas Ople. The Evening Press was on CM Recto Street (then Azcarraga), Free Press was on Rizal Avenue, and the Roces magazine group (Liwayway, Bannawag, Bisaya) was on Soler Street.

  11 years ago | reply | hide comment