March 16 - Sights of Manila

My tour of Manila began in Rizal Park, a 140-acre park on the eastern shore of Manila Bay.  The park commemorates José Rizal, the Filipino patriot who was executed there on December 30, 1896.  His death helped to fan the flames of the revolution against Spanish rule which had been brewing for years.  In the park is a monument consisting of a bronze statue of Rizal and an obelisk behind him, both sitting atop a stone base in which his remains are interred. The monument is guarded around the clock by Philippine Marine Corps guards who moved around very much like the US Army guards around our Tomb of the Unknown soldier.  A few hundred feet away is the exact spot where Rizal was executed by a firing squad and to mark that a life size diorama has been built depicting him being shot in the back by a squad of Filipino soldiers being watched over by Spanish troops to make sure the execution was carried out.  It was Saturday and there were lots of school groups visiting. As we passed some of the young people practiced their English telling us they were glad we were visiting their country.  Our guide Lorna had told us that all children begin learning English as soon as they begin school.

The Rizal Monument and grave

Bronze sculptures of the firing squad at the spot where he was executed

José Rizal

From the park we entered the oldest part of Manila, the Intramuros.  Intramuros means “inside the walls “ in Spanish and the one-quarter square mile area encompassed by the old wall and even by a moat in one part was the original Manila under Spanish rule.  There isn’t really any uniformity to the wall because it was built during different periods of time, but in some places it’s as tall as 20 feet and as wide as 14.  The colony  was under constant threat of attack by Chinese pirates and other intruders so in the late 16th century the construction of the wall began. An integral part of the wall was Fort Santiago.  It was in that prison that José Rizal was imprisoned before his execution.  During WWII the Japanese used the prison and its dungeons for hundreds of prisoners.  Around 600 American POWs are known to have died there of suffocation because of the tight quarters or hunger.  Near the end of the Japanese occupation of Manila the Japanese killed all the prisoners in the fort during what has become known as the "Massacre of Manila." They also slaughtered more than 100,000 civilians in the city. Also within the walls we visited the remains of the American Barracks.  Prior to the Japanese occupation American troops were quartered there.  The Japanese used this building for a few administrative offices and for a prison as well. It was there that they imprisoned the president of the Philippines.  What’s left now are just scorched roofless walls.

The ruins of the American Barracks

The entrance to Fort Santiago

The coat of arms over the door is the Spanish coat of arms, Castile and Leon

The next stop was San Agustin Church, the oldest stone church in the country. San Agustin was completed in 1607.  Just think of that; it was completed the same year that the first English came to Jamestown.  I don’t know why that hit me.  Perhaps because we don’t have any structures left intact from early Jamestown; the closest thing is the bell tower at the church there. But I digress.  Next to the church in what was once the monastery of the Augustinians is the Museum of San Agustin which houses the country’s premier ecclesiastical museum.  The displays include religious works and artifacts from the Spanish colonial period.  Just like ones that I’ve seen in Spanish churches and museums there are magnificent silken vestments and chalices and reliquaries encrusted with gemstones.  The building itself has been rebuilt because it was virtually destroyed in WWII. It did give me a good idea of the riches that Spain acquired through their colonial possessions.

San Agustin Church

After visiting San Agustin we left the Intramuros area and drove to the modern greater Manila city to a hotel for lunch. Lunch was in the Diamond Hotel which looked very luxurious.  We had a very extensive buffet to choose from which included all kinds of international cuisines.  There was a  large display in the lobby for Easter and I had to take a photo because it was so cute.

After lunch we drove out to the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. The 152-acre cemetery contains the largest number of graves of US military dead of WWII.  There are 16,859 graves of people who died mainly in the Philippines and New Guinea. The headstones are arranged in eleven plots in sort of a circle with a chapel in the middle.  Around the chapel are structures with mosaic maps showing the progress of the war in the Pacific.  There are also limestone walls inscribed with the Tablets of the Missing.  There are 36,286 names there.  Next to some names are rosettes indicating that since the memorial was created remains have been found and identified.  On the walkway through the tablets the seals of the 50 states are carved.  There’s also a visitor center where I watched a short video about the attack on the Philippines and looked at the displays telling about some of the people who were incarcerated and died here.  I’ve written before about how moving the cemetery at Normandy was to me and this one was too.  I have to say that the setting of the one in France is more conducive to reflection than this one which is in the middle of lots of tall skyscrapers and close to the international airport.  There was a couple on our tour who had an uncle buried in the cemetery.  I was so impressed with what the staff did.  They took the couple out to the location of the woman’s uncle’s cross.  They polished the white marble cross and gave the lady an American and a Filipino flag to put at the foot of the marker.  Then they gave her a folder with a photo and all the data in their registry about her relative.  I think it was very special for them.

Just one of many plots of crosses

Tablets of the Missing

After our visit at the cemetery it was time to contend with Manila traffic to make it back to the ship on time.  A lot of the city is very modern but we passed through some of the seedier side.  What was amazing to me was the incredible mess of wires strung up along the street and heading to buildings in those areas.  There were big clumps and knots of wires and I can’t figure out how anyone would know which line was which if there was any kind of outage.  The traffic was unbelievable with lots of mopeds zipping around and open jitneys which are little buses in which people sit not in rows like in our buses but in rows down either side.  There’s an intricate payment system (all cash) which our guide explained and I couldn’t begin to recount here.

This moped is evidently the equivalent of an Uber moped identifiable by the helmets being worn

It's hard to see but there's a maze of wires strung on the poles.  The white roofed vehicle is an open air jitney.

When we arrived back at the dock it was a little sad.  The remaining crew families were saying their goodbyes.  There were some parents hugging little children and I could only imagine how hard that had to be knowing that it could be months before they could see them again.

I’m glad I’ve been here.  I’m not so sure I would make a point of coming back but it has been very educational.  The people that I encountered were all very friendly and the students in the morning seemed especially excited to see us.  I know I’ve written an awful lot but the best way for me to get things straight in my head is to put them on “paper,” in this case my digital journal.