MANILA has been the locale of historic events in the Orient.
Manila by night. “On the night martial law was declared, Zumel was as usual having a late-night drinking spree at the NPC bar. He was summoned to the telephone by a caller at about 1 a.m. on Sept. 23, after which he invited some of the boys to transfer with him to Taboy’s ‘Cinco Litros,’ a small bar at Ermita whose owner could sing lewd songs even in polite society. Zumel’s group took a cab from the NPC. On the way, he told his colleagues, including Bobby Ordonez, that martial law has been proclaimed. When the taxicab reached the Rizal monument area on the Luneta along Roxas Boulevard, Zumel commanded the car to stop and told his companions that he was getting out…’This is going to be a long night. I hope we will meet when the dawn of freedom breaks. All right, guys, let’s all try to stay healthy. Till we meet again!’ Tony faded into the night.” [Primitivo Mijares. The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, 1976 Edition, p. 73]
GomBurZa martyrdom. “Late in the night of the 15th February 1872 a Spanish court-martial found three secular priests, Jose Burgos, Mariano G6mez, and Jacinto Zamora, guilty of treason…The judgment of the court-martial was read to the priests in Fort Santiago early the next morning and they were told they would be executed the following day…The news of the judgment appears to have spread rapidly, and thousands of Filipinos gathered in the field of the new town called Bagumbayan where the executions would take place.” [Leon Ma. Guerrero. The First Filipino: A Biography of Jose Rizal. Manila: National Historical Commission, 1974, pp. 3-4]
‘When the taxicab reached the Rizal monument area on the Luneta along Roxas Boulevard, Zumel commanded the car to stop and told his companions that he was getting out.’
Justice calling. “In the end of August 1994, Murayama visited the Philippines. We thought he might bring up with President Fidel V. Ramos the idea of creating a women’s center …. Murayama arrived on a rainy Monday. About 50 of us, mainly former comfort women, staged a picket in front of the Manila Hotel where the prime minister stayed. It was raining hard, and we were drenched. After half an hour, the police drove us away from the hotel. One of the former comfort women who attended the rally that day was Simplicia Marilag. She was not feeling well, and the rain made things worse. She said she was dizzy, and had chills. We took her back home, but a few days later, she died. The Japanese government insists that the issue of compensation had already been resolved when it paid reparations to the Philippine government after the end of the Second World War. I do not agree with this position.” [Maria Rosa Henson. Comfort Woman: A Filipina’s Story of Prostitution and Slavery under the Japanese Military, p. 91]
Rescued from Moro terrorists. “The trip to Manila took less than an hour. There the US ambassador, Francis Ricciardone, a distinguished-looking man in a suit, came onto the plane to say, ‘We are so glad you are here. Welcome to Manila. We’re going to take you to the embassy.’ Within minutes I was in another ambulance headed through the nighttime streets of the capital. Later I found out that, in order to protect me from the curious press, two decoy ambulances had already been sent toward Malacañang, the presidential palace. Meanwhile, we went the back way to the embassy and were there within ten or fifteen minutes. They had obviously planned all this in detail, and everything went like clockwork. As we pulled through the security gates there on Roxas Boulevard, I gazed out at the palm trees and the beautifully manicured lawns and remembered when I had been to these buildings years before for passport matters. But this time, I saw rooms I’d never seen before. They wheeled me into a cozy two-bedroom suite with tasteful furniture and attractive art on the walls.” [Gracia Burnham. In The Presence Of My Enemies. Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2003, p. 247]
Manila Declaration by the Philippines, the Federation of Malaya and Indonesia, 03 August 1963: “that the three nations shall combine their efforts in the common struggle against colonialism and imperialism in all their forms and manifestations and for the eradication of the vestiges thereof in the region in particular and the world in general.”
Act of Taking Possession of Luzon. “In the island called by the natives ‘Luzon the greater,’ in a town and river of the same called Manila, on the sixth of June in the year 1570, the honorable Martin de Goite, his Majesty’s master-of-camp in these Western Islands, declared before me, Hernando Riquel, chief government notary, and in the presence of the undersigned witnesses, that, inasmuch as–a thing well and generally known–his Excellency being in this river of Manila, with the men and ships accompanying him, and having made peace and drawn his blood with two chiefs, styling themselves kings of this said town (by name Soliman and Raxa, respectively), and without giving them cause or treating them in a manner that would make the said natives change their attitude, the above said chiefs began war treacherously and unexpectedly, without advising him beforehand; and wounded and seized certain Indians accompanying us. After that, they discharged the artillery in their fort, two balls from which struck the ship ‘San Miguel,’ on board of which was the said master-of-camp. He, in order to guard himself from the injury which the said Moros were doing him in starting the war, and to prevent their artillery from harming his men, attacked the said fort of the Moros, and captured it by force of arms and is now in possession of it. And inasmuch as the said fort and town of Manila have been won in lawful and just war, and since, according to the said natives, Manila is the capital of all the towns of this said island: therefore in his Majesty’s name, he was occupying and did occupy, was taking and did take, royal ownership and possession, actual and quasi, of this said island of Luzon and of all the other ports, towns, and territories adjoining and belonging to this said island. Moreover, as a sign of real occupation, he ordered his ensign to raise the flag of his company on the fort built by the natives, had the artillery found in the said fort taken for his Majesty, and performed other acts and duties as a sign of real occupation.” [Martin de Goite. Drawn in my presence: Hernando Riquel]
Manila, the original Pearl of the Orient, still attracts Han chauvinists, jihadists and tourists.