The property was used in various capacities prior to being occupied by the Embassy. On October 22, 1948, its owner, Francisco Toifl, sold the property — at the time a furnished house — to Raquel Burgos de Escobar. who also acquired the property on the opposite corner, and ran both properties as hotels. She then sold the property on November 6, 1950 to Josefa F. Mónaco de Miranda, who ran it as the Hotel Victory, and selling it less than a year later to a new owner, Teodoro Gehrung. By 1958, the property had come to the ownership of hoteliers Antonio Muras Núñez and Adolfo Mata Rial. Starting as late as 1967, and until at least 1973, the property served as the residence of Dr. Carlos David Storni, who became president and later Honorary Member of the Argentine Geological Association. In 1989, it was converted into the Hogar del Virrey, a retirement home established by psychologist Alejandro van Oostveldt and his wife, Elsa Patricia Pizzi, and in 2007 the property was listed as a heritage building by the Buenos Aires City Legislature with the passage of Law No. 2.548, which prohibits the demolition of any structure in Buenos Aires built before December 31, 1941. The Embassy began occupying the property in 2012, while the Buenos Aires center of the Sentro Rizal opened in the property on June 21, 2015. In 1997, the Buenos Aires city government was forced to reconstruct the property's legal records after it was discovered that the original records could not be found.
Staff and activities
The Philippine Embassy in Buenos Aires is currently headed by Ambassador Linglingay F. Lacanlale, who was appointed to the position by President Duterte on January 19, 2018. Prior to becoming Ambassador, Lacanlale, a decorated career diplomat with over 40 years of experience, had most recently served as Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Administration, and was also deployed to the missions in Vienna, New York City and Bangkok before that. Her appointment was confirmed by the Commission on Appointments on February 21, 2018. Many of the Embassy's activities center around promoting Filipino culture and strengthening the deep cultural ties between the Philippines and Argentina. These include promoting the practice of arnis in the country in 2007, facilitating a series of concerts by the University of the Philippines Madrigal Singers in 2011, organizing a benefit dinner for victims of Typhoon Yolanda in 2013, and hosting an exhibit on Philippine textiles at the Fondo Nacional de las Artes in 2019. It also collaborates with the other Southeast Asian missions in Argentina to promote the region as a whole: in 2015, the Embassy led in organizing a festival promoting Southeast Asian cultures at Plaza Barrancas in Belgrano, and the next year participated in festivities celebrating the 63rd anniversary of the Federación Económica de Tucumán. In addition to activities in Argentina, the Embassy exercises jurisdiction in Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay, where it maintains honorary consulates. In 2012, the Embassy filed a diplomatic protest with the Argentinean Ministry of Foreign Affairs over a riot that took place after a match between Filipino boxer Johnriel Casimero and his Argentinean counterpart, Luis Alberto Lazarte, which led to calls in the Philippines for the recall of then-Ambassador Rey Carandang.
