The Manila Metropolitan Theater: A history and its road to a glorified restoration

For more than four decades, the Manila Metropolitan Theater (MET) has been in ruins; it has 8,239.58 square meters of floor area and during the late 1940s it housed an ice cream parlor; used as a gay bar and boxing arena in the 1960s. The theater has a capacity of 1,670 seats, 846 orchestra and 718 balconies.

Design by a known Filipino architect Juan M. Arellano in January 1930, inspired by the early Filipino art and diverse images of the Philippine flora, Arch. Arellano want a modern design for the theater. Now that the National Commission for Culture and Arts (NCCA) owns MET, plans to restore the old glory of the building is its number one goal, “what we’ll do is to restore the original (design), so that you won’t know the difference between 1931 and today”, said the NCCA Chairman Felipe M. de Leon Jr.

According to the NCCA chairman, it would take two years for them to restore MET, they are eyeing to work with Arch. Tina Paterno who is the executive director of the San Sebastian Basilica Conservation and Development Foundation and Engr. Villarasa.

Signing of the Deed of Absolute Sale with GSIS and NCCA, Pasay City (GSIS Office)

It’s been two years since the NCCA started to create a master plan, a plan which the Department of Budget and Management requires for them to be provided the exact funds to purchase MET. The plan is comprise of how they are to make use of the theater once it is fully restored to its old beauty, in which the NCCA chairman said that students, teachers and schools in Manila can use it for their art exhibits, films and other performances.

The NCCA purchased MET to the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) for 270 million Php and signed the Deed of Absolute Sale on Thursday, June 10, 2015 on the GSIS building.

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Unpublished report: June 11, 2015