Manila

We spent 2 days in Manila and feel like we have a good understanding of what goes on there.  Like so many other large cities in Southeast Asia, the city is overflowing with people and traffic. They build roads on top of roads in an attempt to alleviate traffic problems, but so far it’s not working.  Population control does not seem to be a consideration in this devoutly Catholic country.

The Philippines were a Spanish colony until the Spanish-American War in 1898. Following that they became America’s first colony. But American didn’t really want to have colonies, so we helped build the country up, promising independence in 1945. The Japanese occupied the Philippines in WWII. (Note—WWII is actually called the Japanese-American war by a lot of the people here. They had little or no contact with what was going on in the remainder of the world.) Following WWII, American once more built the country up and gave them independence in 1946.

Our first stop was an interesting one. At St. Joseph’s Parish Church in a Manila suburb we found the bamboo organ, shown in Picture 1. Not only is its case bamboo, but the pipes are too. Picture 2 shows some of the pipes in the rear.  It was built in 1824, outfitted with an electric air source (instead of hand operated bellows) in 1932, fell into disrepair, was sent to Germany in 1973 for a 2-year restoration and is now fully operational. In some of the larger bamboo pipes they added a metal insert, but otherwise, it’s all bamboo. It sounds pretty good.

We visited the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, which is shown in Picture 3, against the modern Manila skyline. It’s beautiful and a grim reminder of what happened in the Asia/Pacific Theater of WWII. In the arched galleries on either side of the memorial tower are mosaic maps of the battles that occurred in Asia and the Pacific—from India and Burma in the west to the Pacific Islands in the East. Our guide told us that he had read the books and seen the movies about the atrocities that occurred in Europe, but he reminded us that the Japanese committed terrible atrocities too and we often forget that.  Over the course of the next few days we visited a couple sites that emphasized this—more later.

We have met a man on the ship, who is 94 and served as a WWII Army Air Corp pilot in the Pacific, flying bombing missions from the island of Tinian to Japan—12-14 hour missions. When we asked if that was the island from which the Enola Gay took off, he told us yes, it was parked two planes over from his. A truly great man and, if we live to be 94, may we be as sharp, healthy and gracious as he is.

The remainder of the 152-acre site is filled with rows upon rows of crosses and stars of David, like the portion shown in picture 4. This reminds us of the cost of wars. We must only choose honorable and just causes.

Picture 5 shows the site of one of the WWII atrocities mentioned above. This is Fort Santiago, originally built by the Spanish. The fort was used as a prison during Spanish and American periods. During the Japanese occupation, the Japanese held prisoners of war here. For Filipinos, the Japanese killed 300 a day by beheading. They would bring someone out, toss a coin and that would tell whether the person lived and went back to prison or was beheaded. For Americans, they were placed in dungeons below sea level. At high tide, the dungeons were flooded and the bodies brought out at low tide.

The Cathedral is new and pretty uninteresting, but the church in Picture 6 is on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites.  It is the oldest structure in the Philippines, built between 1587 and 1607. It’s baroque and noted for its Trompe l’oeil painting that makes the decoration look like carving, rather than painting (Picture 7).

We also visited the park honoring Jose Rizal, the national hero. The monument to him is shown in Picture 8. He wrote encouraging Philippine independence from Spain, was arrested for treason and executed by firing squad. Statues showing the execution (Picture 9) mark the spot where it actually occurred.

Of course we also had a few slices of life in Manila. Our guide managed to show us the “good” spots, but occasionally the poverty of the people came through, like in Picture 10. Part of Manila is new and shiny, but if you look down the side streets, the problems quickly appear.

Picture 11 shows 2 Manila institutions. The vehicle, the Jitney is the common mode of transportation for local people. For about 20 cents you can get anywhere in Manila in a cramped, open vehicle. Originally based on old Jeep chassis left behind by Americans, there are now chassis from other companies. The second institution is the Jollibee fast food restaurant chain. As we understand, the company is owned by Tony Tan, who applied for a McDonalds franchise, but was turned down and decided to start his own company. Today, wherever you found a McDonalds or Burger King, a Jollibee will be less than a block away. Filipinos love hamburgers, but prefer them with a mixture of beef and pork. Jollibee has met that need and is wildly successful, enabling the owner to branch into other kinds of fast food.

Finally, the Filipinos were delighted that we stopped in the Philippines (5 stops in all). As we left Manila, Picture 12 shows the young people, playing musical instruments and dancing, who performed for us as we sailed form Manila.