Manila revisited

by Laurie Watson

During the 1960s and 1970s many RAN ships visited Manila during SEATO exercises, on R&R from Vietnam, or just on goodwill visits. There are plenty who will remember the hassle of catching liberty boats into the landing near Naval Headquarters on Roxas Boulevard, the long seafront esplanade or, even worse, taking the liberty boat across to the US Marine Corps Station at Cavite.

For most of the officers I know, their memories of Manila are dominated by the attractions of the nightlife prevalent in those days. The Canary Bar, the Yellow Bar, the Frisco and many others are names that evoke lurid and sometimes embarrassing memories of astonishing runs ashore.

Some things never seem to change (left). “Never seen this place before in me life, Chief, honest.“

I recall those days vividly and, to me and all those I went ashore with, Manila consisted of Roxas Boulevard and about a hundred yards of hinterland, irrigated by San Mig and accessible only by jeepney. Beyond that was nothing, and certainly in our minds nothing worth going to see. So in 2001, when my employer asked me to come and run the office in Manila, I had to be persuaded, and only did so from a sense of pre-retirement adventure and secure in the knowledge my wife and I could bolt back to the safety of Brisbane the moment we wanted to. Having approached Manila from the other side of Roxas Boulevard we found a city and a lifestyle that could not be more different to the one of lingering memory.

What is Manila?

Manila is a city, it is true, but it is actually only one of fourteen cities and municipalities that constitute the megalopolis of Metro Manila. Manila itself lies at the mouth of the Pasig River, and much of it is upstream from the bay, and on the north side of the river, or the opposite side to where we used to come ashore and a couple of kilometres distant.

Most of the night action we remember along the waterfront was spread between the fringe of Manila and its adjacent city of Pasay.  

Although Manila is where the metropolis had its beginnings, the heart is now about three kilometres away in Makati, although large rival CBDs have sprung up in Quezon City and Mandaluyong City, several kilometres further to the east and north-east. The name “Manilaâ” is frequently applied to “Metro Manila” so there is an imprecision that I hope the readers will indulge as they wade through this tome.

Manila’s start and the Spaniards

Let’s start with a little history, because it puts the current city into context. Recorded history began with the arrival of the Spaniards in the 16th century. However the geographic location of the Philippines, close to major trading routes, suggests much interaction with other regions. Archaeological evidence shows rich pre-colonial cultures dominated by trade with Asian and SE Asian neighbours, and contact with Arab traders reached its peak about the 12th century. By the time the Spaniards arrived, Islam was well established in many parts of the archipelago.

Upon arrival, the Spanish really went out of their way to make their presence felt, and to eradicate the terrible local “pagan” (including Islamic) practices. The early years were hard going for them however, and one early attempt at colonisation ended with the death in 1521 of explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Forty years later in 1565 with the Magellan incident still a nasty memory, Spain made another run in the form of Miguel de Legaspi who achieved a forced entry to the country on Cebu Island. Six years and innumerable skirmishes later, the Spaniards shifted base to Manila (or “Maynilad”as it was), which had probably been founded by Muslim traders in about the 12th century.

Beyond the bars, a different city

Those who have visited Manila and gone beyond the rows of bars will remember that the old city lies within impressive stone fortifications where the Pasig River enters Manila Bay. The Spaniards’ arrival at Manila was vigorously but unsuccessfully opposed by the local Muslim leader, and his death in 1571 marked the beginning of Spain’s 327-year rule.  

Legaspi immediately set about building Spanish Manila and with the help of his priestly associates began spreading the Good News – and feudalism – far and wide. Manila soon developed as the major political, economic, and ecclesiastical centre of the region, especially the latter, because in most respects the colony was a theocracy. The walls of the old city remain pretty much intact along with several major buildings within them, and there would be much more if it weren’t for the 1945 Battle of Manila. Except for two years (1762—64) when the city was in British hands, it remained under Spanish control until the Spanish-American War of 1898.  

During the first two centuries of their occupation, trade was the priority, with the Spaniards using the Philippines mainly as an entrepot for their China-Acapulco trade. Shipbuilding was established and grew into a major industry, with the virgin forests of the Philippines supplying the wood to construct the hundreds of galleons used on the trans-Pacific trade. During those centuries the civil administration of the Philippines reported to the Viceroy in Mexico City rather than to Madrid.

The Americans and WW II

Concurrently with the Spanish-American War, the Filipino independence movement came of age, and there was a popular uprising against the Spanish administration, carried out with tacit US help. In the Treaty of Paris ending the war, the US and Spanish governments struck a deal in which $20,000,000 changed hands and the Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rica, and the Marianas all chopped to US control.  

The independence fighters were understandably dismayed at this turn of events and armed rebellion blazed for several years, with effective government only established in 1901.  

During those three years of US-Filipino conflict (and for several years after), both sides committed many atrocities, and the Americans perfected the water torture, later used by the Japanese in WW II to great effect. Many of the security problems now afflicting Mindanao can be traced directly to this period.

The US administration of the Philippines was coyly termed “tutelage” in an attempt to avoid any colonial connotation, and the country was quickly remodelled in America’s own image, as far as that was possible. From 1901, political and military power was vested in the military governor, who basically replaced the Spanish Governor General. In 1935 the governor became a civilian appointment and he in turn appointed a puppet president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines. This situation prevailed until WW II.

Douglas MacArthur, wades ashore in WW II (left). Clark Air Force Base was swamped by ash from the 1991 Pinatubo volcanic eruption.

Japan attacked Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base almost concurrently with the Pearl Harbour and Kotabaru attacks, and the Philippines were quickly overrun. The entire country was in Japanese hands by February 1942, with the sole exception of the island of Corregidor at the mouth of Manila Bay. Corregidor held out until March, giving Douglas MacArthur time to escape to Australia.

The occupation began brutally with the Bataan Death March, and continued its brutality for the duration. Several well-organised guerrilla groups harassed the Japanese, particularly in the main island of Luzon, but there were inevitable reprisals against the civilian population. However, Manila itself survived most of the war largely unscathed. Its gracious colonial architecture, impressive art deco commercial buildings and broad boulevards were intact until February 1945.

The Battle of Manila should never have happened. Allied forces island-hopping through the Pacific towards Japan intended to by-pass the Philippines. The strategists did not reckon with the persuasive power of Douglas MacArthur, who was determined to make good his promise of “I will return” (made in 1942 once he was safely in Melbourne, not, as often reported, as he was departing Corregidor). It has been said that he wanted to stage a triumphal re-entry to the city along the lines of de Gaulle’s entry into Paris, but he underestimated the ferocity of the Imperial Japanese Marines.

“Tiger of Malaya”

The “Tiger of Malaya”, General Yamashita, had been dispatched in 1944 to shore up the Philippines’ defences. He recognised that Manila was essentially indefensible and so evacuated his troops from the city. A hard core of marines refused to leave, and dug in to oppose the allies. They were concentrated in the old city where the fort (Fort Santiago) on the Pasig River held about 400 allied and Filipino prisoners of war in the dungeons. The marines opened sluice gates and drowned them all.

MacArthur was impatient to flush out the marines but the marines were intractable, and so began the four weeks long Battle of Manila. The old city was bombed and shelled almost continuously until the only significant building remaining was the 300 year old nave of St Augustine’s Church. The Japanese marines started their defence in the residential areas of Ermita, Malate, and Tondo, adjacent to the walled city. They gradually withdrew inside the walls, and finally into Fort Santiago, murdering the civilian population indiscriminately as they went.

Civilians trapped

As well as the bombings, USN ships in the bay shelled the buildings sequentially. The civilian population, which consisted of Filipinos, Spaniards, Chinese, Germans, Portuguese, and many other ethnic groups, was trapped. Nobody was spared if the Japanese caught them. This was a middle and upper class area where the populace had been able to continue residing fairly peaceably during the preceding three years. The accounts of the attacks on the civilian population in the month it took to liberate Manila make horrifying reading.

By the time the Americans entered the city in March 1945, all the Japanese were dead, but so were over 100,000 Filipinos, although the total area of the destruction was not much bigger than Centennial Park in Sydney. In his book American Caesar, William Manchester wrote, “the destruction of Manila was one of the greatest tragedies of WW II. Of allied capitals in those war years, only Warsaw suffered more. Seventy per cent of the utilities, 73 per cent of the factories, 80 per cent of the residential district, and 100 per cent of the business district was razed.” Manila was also the only allied capital destroyed in the Pacific theatre .

The estimates at the time suggest that for every six Filipinos murdered by the Japanese, four were killed in the attempt to liberate Manila. Carmen Nakpil, a noted Filipina writer commented that, “those who survived Japanese hate did not survive American love. Both were deadly, the latter more so because it was sought and longed for.”

Post WW II

What had been the “Pearl of the Orient” was now wasteland. But Manila’s troubles did not stop there. As soon as they could, the residents of Manila abandoned the old city and fled inland to found new cities such as New Manila, Makati, Quezon City, and others. These have now all been absorbed into Metro Manila, but in 1945 they were still largely farmland. Those who have visited Makati CBD may not know that one of the main streets, Paseo de Roxas, was a wartime airstrip, and until about 1960, the international airport’s runway.

Then-thriving Olongapo (foreground), supported the Subic Bay Naval Base and Air Station in this 1978 photo.

Modern Manila: Makati (left) and Roxas Blvd.

Despite its bad international press (and the crime rate, poverty, exploitation, and corruption should not be understated, but are not the topic of this article), Manila is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Asia. Unlike many of its SE Asian neighbours, there is enormous freedom of the press which is exercised through a vast array of daily newspapers and periodicals and radio and television stations. There is a ballet, a symphony orchestra and more than 20 universities and colleges.

These include the University of Santo Tomas which is the oldest university in Asia, dating from 1611, and which during World War II served as a concentration camp for thousands of American, British, and Dutch civilian prisoners. Although most of the old Spanish city was destroyed, parts of it have been restored, and outside the immediate environs there are plenty of historical relics dating back 400 years. A little way from the walled city there is an extremely good National Museum and there are several excellent smaller museums within easy striking distance. The Manila Hotel, the local “Raffles”, has been restored and if a paying guest is not in residence, visitors can be shown the suite where Douglas MacArthur lived. It is full of MacArthur memorabilia.

Malacanang Palace

A kilometre or so upriver from the walled city is Malacanang Palace, home of the President of the Republic, and former palace of the Spanish Governor-General. For most of the time when RAN ships visited Manila during the 70s and 80s, President Ferdinand Marcos was the incumbent and everyone remembers the curfews and armed patrols during his martial law reign.

History shows that his government descended into a dictatorial kleptocracy. He was eventually overthrown and replaced by Corazon Aquino, but her government was inept, coup-prone and unable to control the corruption that burgeoned in post-Marcos Philippines.

General Fidel Ramos replaced her and his rule ended the communist guerilla war that had been raging in the Philippines for years and brought order and stability. Unfortunately he fell to a groundswell of popular support for aging B-grade movie actor Joseph Estrada in 1998. The Filipinos who elected Estrada got more personality than they bargained for – the president was impeached and was charged in December 2000 for allegedly pocketing millions of dollars worth of bribes from local gambling syndicates, much of which it was claimed he used to build lavish houses for his numerous mistresses. He was convicted of “plunder” but pardoned by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on 25 October 2007.

The colourful jeepney remains a popular form of transport. The larger ones retain the distinctive jeep-style front grille, but the body has been extended to take on the proportions of a moderately-sized truck.

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, whose father was president before Marcos, succeeded Estrada, but the country continues to flop along with dismal political leadership, a current and persistent constitutional crisis (at June 2005), an ongoing currency crisis, huge economic problems, and a stew of separatist, local Muslim, and international terrorist groups slugging it out with the military (and occasionally each other) in Mindanao.

The terrorist and separatist problems have become mixed up with organised crime and this cocktail has an ongoing impact on Manila. There have been several bombings in Metro Manila during the past five years and armed security guards are evident in all public places, including shopping malls, hotels, and churches. There are always rumours of coups and the military goes on “red alert” with disheartening frequency. Despite all this, Manilenos get on with their lives with sanguine normalcy, and the middle classes live very comfortably and calmly. Excellent European restaurants abound, the selection of wines in any hotel or restaurant is first class (and for any Australian wine about $3-5 per bottle cheaper in a Manila bottle shop than in an Australian one), movies are released at the same time as the US, and petrol is still less than $1 per litre.

Unfortunately visiting RAN personnel still rarely if ever see this other, and larger, side of Manila, and I was dismayed to hear from an officer in a ship that visited recently that he wouldn’t be bothered going ashore in Manila because there’s “nothing to see and nothing to do except get pi**ed.” It seems an easy way to write off the remnants of four hundred years of colonial history, a colourful mix of vibrant cultures, some spectacular scenery, astonishingly good water sports, great golf courses, and world-class restaurants.

The other sideLike so many of his predecessors, including this writer up until a few years ago, Manila is synonymous with waterfront bars, thievery, and debauchery. Well, that goes for most cities these days and, like most cities, Manila also has a mature, vibrant, and sophisticated side. Try it and see the difference to the “old days”.

References:

Aluit, Alfonso J. By Sword and Fire, the Destruction of Manila. Bookmark Inc.: Lenexa. 1994.
Connaughton, Richard, J. Pimlott and D. Anderson. The Battle for Manila. Presido Press: Novato. 1995.
Manchester, William. American Caesar. Little Brown: Boston. 1978.

Website:

http://www.lonelyplanet.com.