Construction Following the naming of
Quezon City as the new
capital city of the Philippines in 1948, a cornerstone for a Capitol building was laid on Constitution Hill, now Batasan Hills, in Quezon City on October 22, 1949. Originally reserved for the
Philippine Military Academy as per the 1941
Frost Plan, the location was part of a larger National Government Center, which was intended to house the three branches of the Philippine government–legislative, executive, and judicial. In 1956, architect Federico S. Ilustre laid out the master plan for the location, which was set aside to be the new home of the Congress (made up of the
Senate and the House of Representatives). Ilustre had also designed the buildings for the new legislative center. Public reception to the building's design was lukewarm, so a newer design by the National Planning Commission under architect Anselmo Alquinto replaced the Ilustre-designed one. By 1963, however, only the concrete foundations and steel frame were laid out. Ultimately, due to lack of funding, the Capitol was never completed. The uncompleted structure sat in the area for more than a decade before being torn down. During the presidency of
Ferdinand E. Marcos, the plans for a legislative complex were revived. By that time, the 1973
constitution had replaced the bicameral Congress with the
Batasang Pambansa, a unicameral parliament. The new complex was accordingly designed to house only one legislative body. Felipe M. Mendoza was designated as the architect of the complex and its surrounding area. The uncompleted structure for the Capitol building was torn down to make way for the new complex. The North and South Wing Buildings were completed in December 1977. Meanwhile, the Main Building itself finally opened on May 31, 1978. However, the rest of the intended government buildings and public spaces around the complex were never built. The legislative body, known as the
Interim Batasang Pambansa, first convened at the Main Building on June 12, 1978.
Turnover to the House of Representatives However, under the 1987 Constitution, the legislative branch again became bicameral. The numerically larger House of Representatives retained the session hall and offices of the old
Batasang Pambansa on the grounds of the complex. The smaller, newly reinstated Senate returned to the
original legislative building in Manila (reinstated as capital city in 1976) and held their plenary sessions there until the building was turned over to the
National Museum of the Philippines under the presidency of
Fidel V. Ramos. The Senate has since moved to the
GSIS Building on reclaimed land on
Manila Bay in
Pasay, holding their plenary sessions there since May 1997.
Expansion Apart from designing the core buildings of the complex, Felipe M. Mendoza and his office also allotted a master plan for possible expansion of the complex. In January 2025, Speaker
Martin Romualdez led the
opening ceremony of the
Jose de Venecia Building and Museum.
2007 bombing On the evening of November 13, 2007, a bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded near the south wing of the complex.
Basilan representative
Wahab Akbar was killed in the explosion alongside five congressional staffers, while representative
Pryde Henry Teves of
Negros Oriental's
3rd district was injured. Among the suspects arrested, Ikram Indama was later found guilty by the Quezon City
Regional Trial Court Branch 83 in perpetrating the attack, being sentenced in 2017 to life imprisonment without parole. ==Interior==