Manila was the first chartered city in the country, designated byPhilippine Commission Act No. 183 on July 31, 1901. It became autonomous with the passage of Republic Act No. 409, "The Revised Charter of the City of Manila", on June 18, 1949.[12][13] Manila is considered to be part of the world's original set ofglobal cities because its commercial networks were the first to extend across the Pacific Ocean and connect Asia with theSpanish Americas through thegalleon trade. This marked the first time an uninterrupted chain of trade routes circling the planet had been established.[14][15]
Maynilà, theFilipino name for the city, comes from eithermay-nilà, meaning "where indigo plant is abundant"[21] ormay-nilad "where nilad plant is abundant".[22]
Nilà is derived from theSanskrit wordnīla (नील), which refers toindigo dye and, by extension, toseveral plant species from which this natural dye can be extracted.[21][23] The nameMaynilà was probably bestowed because of the indigo-yielding plants that grew in the area surrounding the settlement rather than because it was known as a settlement that traded in indigo dye.[21] Indigo dye extraction only became an important economic activity in the area in the 18th century, several hundred years afterMaynila settlement was founded and named.[21]Maynilà eventually underwent a process ofHispanicization and adopted the Spanish nameManila.[24]
This etymology arose from the observation that, inTagalog,nilad ornilar refers to a shrub-like tree (Scyphiphora hydrophyllacea; formerlyIxora manila Blanco) that grows in or nearmangrove swamps.[21][25][26] However, Baumgartner explained that it is unlikely that native Tagalog speakers would completely drop the final consonant /d/ innilad to arrive at the present formMaynilà.[21] As an example, nearbyBacoor retains the final consonant of the old Tagalog wordbakoód ("elevated piece of land"), even in old Spanish renderings of the placename (e.g.,Vacol,Bacor).[27] Linguist Vic Romero contends that it's actually not impossible for final consonant /d/ to shift into a glottal stop such as inmapalad topinagpalà andhangád tohangà.[22]
The earliest known reference to this etymology was in the third volume ofJohn Ray'sHistoria Plantarum in 1704 originally lifted from theHerbarium aliarumque Stirpium in Insula Luzone Philippinarum primaria nascentium... byFr. Georg Josef Kamel[28] and he mentioned that:
Nilad arbor mediocris, rarissimi recta, ligno folido, et compacto ut Molavin, ubi abundant Mangle, locum vocant Manglar, ita ubi nilad, Maynilad, unde corrupte Manila (Nilad is an average tree, very rare straight, leafy wood, and compact like Molavin, where Mangle abounds, the place is called Manglar, so where nilad (abounds), Maynilad, whence the corruption Manila).[29][22]
Examples of popular adoption of this etymology include the name of a local utility company Maynilad Water Services and the name of an underpass close to Manila City Hall, Lagusnilad (meaning "Nilad Pass").
TheLaguna Copperplate Inscription is the oldest historical record in the Philippines. It has the first historical reference toTondo and dates back toSaka 822 (c. 900).
The earliest evidence of human life around present-day Manila is the nearbyAngono Petroglyphs, which are dated to around 3000 BC.Negritos, the aboriginal inhabitants of the Philippines, lived across the island ofLuzon, where Manila is located, beforeMalayo-Polynesians arrived andassimilated them.[30]
Maynila, along withTondo, were active trade partners with theSong andYuan dynasties of China and flourished during the mid to later period of theMing dynasty.[31] According to a Japanese encyclopediaWakan Sansai Zue, Luzon or Lusong (Maynila) was referred to as a "kingdom" south ofTaiwan.[32]
During the 12th century, then-Hindu Brunei called "Pon-i", as reported in the Chinese annalsNanhai zhi, invaded Malilu 麻裏蘆 (claimed by various scholars to be the present-day Manila) as it also administeredSarawak andSabah, as well as the Philippine kingdoms of:Butuan,Sulu,Ma-i (Mindoro or Laguna),Shahuchong 沙胡重 (present-dayZamboanga), Yachen 啞陳 (Oton), and 文杜陵 Wenduling (present-dayMindanao,Bintulu orMindoro).[33][34] In the 13th century, Manila consisted of a fortified settlement and trading quarter on the shore of the Pasig River. Upon the conversion ofBrunei from Hinduism to Islam, Manila also followed, as the Bruneian royal family also intermarried with Manila's royal family, as can be gleaned by the personage ofRajah Matanda who was simultaneously king of Manila while being a great-grandson ofSultan Bolkiah of Brunei.[35]
On June 24, 1571,conquistadorMiguel López de Legazpi arrived in Manila and declared it a territory ofNew Spain, establishing a city council in what is nowIntramuros district. Inspired by theReconquista, he took advantage of a territorial conflict between Hindu Tondo and Islamic Manila to justify expelling or converting Bruneian Muslim colonists who supported Manila while his Mexican grandsonJuan de Salcedo had a romantic relationship withKandarapa, a princess of Tondo.[36] López de Legazpi had the local royalty executed or exiled after the failure of theConspiracy of the Maharlikas, a plot in which an alliance ofdatus,rajahs, Japanese merchants, and theSultanate of Brunei would band together to execute the Spaniards, along with theirLatin American recruits and Visayan allies. The victorious Spaniards made Manila the capital of theSpanish East Indies and of the Philippines, which their empire would control for the next three centuries. In 1574, Manila was besieged by the Chinese pirateLim Hong, who was thwarted by local inhabitants. Upon Spanish settlement, Manila was immediately made, by papal decree,a suffragan of theArchdiocese of Mexico. By royal decree ofPhilip II of Spain, Manila was put under the spiritual patronage of SaintPudentiana andOur Lady of Guidance.[c]
Manila became famous for its role in theManila–Acapulco galleon trade, which lasted for more than two centuries and brought goods from Europe, Africa, and Hispanic America across thePacific Islands to Southeast Asia, andvice versa.Silver that was mined in Mexico and Peru was exchanged for Chinese silk, Indian gems, and spices from Indonesia and Malaysia. Wine and olives grown in Europe and North Africa were shipped via Mexico to Manila.[37] Because of theMing ban on trade leveled against theAshikaga shogunate in 1549, this resulted in the ban of all Japanese people from entering China and of Chinese ships from sailing to Japan. Manila became the only place where the Japanese and Chinese could openly trade.[38] In 1606, upon the Spanish conquest of theSultanate of Ternate, one of monopolizers of the growing of spice, the Spanish deported the ruler Sultan Said Din Burkat[39] of Ternate, along with his clan and his entourage to Manila, where they were initially enslaved and eventually converted to Christianity.[40] About 200 families of mixed Spanish-Mexican-Filipino and Moluccan-Indonesian-Portuguese descent from Ternate and Tidor followed him there at a later date.[41]
The city attained great wealth due to its location at the confluence of theSilk Road, theSpice Route, and theSilver Way.[42] Significant is the role ofArmenians, who acted as merchant intermediaries that made trade between Europe and Asia possible in this area. France was the first nation to try financing its Asian trade with a partnership in Manila through Armenian khojas. The largest trade volume was in iron, and 1,000 iron bars were traded in 1721.[43] In 1762,the city was captured byGreat Britain as part of theSeven Years' War, in which Spain had recently become involved.[44] TheBritish occupied the city for twenty months from 1762 to 1764 in their attempt to capture theSpanish East Indies but they were unable to extend their occupation past Manila proper.[45] Frustrated by their inability to take the rest of the archipelago, the British withdrew in accordance with theTreaty of Paris signed in 1763, which brought an end to the war. An unknown number ofIndian soldiers known assepoys, who came with the British, deserted and settled in nearbyCainta, Rizal.[46][47]
The Chinese minority were punished for supporting the British, and the fortress city Intramuros, which was initially populated by 1,200 pure Spanish families and garrisoned by 400 Spanish troops,[48] kept its cannons pointed atBinondo, the world's oldestChinatown.[49] The population of native Spaniards was concentrated in the southern part of Manila and in 1787, La Pérouse recorded one regiment of 1,300 Mexicans garrisoned at Manila,[50] and they were also atCavite, where ships from Spain's American colonies docked at,[51] and atErmita, which was thus-named because of a Mexican hermit who lived there. The Hermit-Priest's name was Juan Fernandez de Leon who was a Hermit in Mexico before relocating to Manila.[52] Priests weren't usually alone too since they often brought alongLay Brothers and Sisters. The years: 1603, 1636, 1644, 1654, 1655, 1670, and 1672; saw the deployment of 900, 446, 407, 821, 799, 708, and 667 Latin American soldiers fromMexico at Manila.[53] The Philippines hosts the only Latin American established districts in Asia.[54][55] The Spanish evacuated Ternate and settledPapuan refugees inTernate, Cavite, which was named after their former homeland.[56] In 1603, Manila was also home to 25,000 Chinese[57]: 260 and housed 14,437 native (Malay-Filipino) families, as well as 3,528 mixed Spanish-Filipino families.[57]: 539
The rise of Spanish Manila marked the first time all hemispheres and continents were interconnected in a worldwide trade network, making Manila, alongsideMexico City andMadrid, the world'soriginal set of global cities.[58] A Spanish Jesuit priest commented due to the confluence of many foreign languages in Manila, the confessional in Manila was "the most difficult in the world".[59][60] Juan de Cobo, another Spanish missionary of the 1600s, was so astonished by the commerce, cultural complexity, and ethnic diversity in Manila he wrote to his brethren in Mexico:
The diversity here is immense such that I could go on forever trying to differentiate lands and peoples. There are Castilians from all provinces. There are Portuguese and Italians; Dutch, Greeks and Canary Islanders, and Mexican Indians. There are slaves from Africa brought by the Spaniards [Through America], and others brought by the Portuguese [Through India]. There is an African Moor with his turban here. There are Javanese from Java, Japanese and Bengalese from Bengal. Among all these people are the Chinese whose numbers here are untold and who outnumber everyone else. From China there are peoples so different from each other, and from provinces as distant, as Italy is from Spain. Finally, of themestizos, the mixed-race people here, I cannot even write because in Manila there is no limit to combinations of peoples with peoples. This is in the city where all the buzz is. (Remesal, 1629: 680–1)[61]
AfterMexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, the Spanish crown began to directly govern Manila.[62] Under direct Spanish rule, banking, industry, and education flourished more than they had in the previous two centuries.[63] The opening of theSuez Canal in 1869 facilitated direct trade and communications with Spain. The city's growing wealth and education attracted indigenous peoples, Negritos, Malays, Africans, Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Europeans, Latinos and Papuans from the surrounding provinces,[64] and facilitated the rise of anilustrado class who espousedliberal ideas, which became the ideological foundations of thePhilippine Revolution, which sought independence from Spain. A revolt byAndres Novales was inspired by theLatin American wars of independence but the revolt itself was led by demoted Latin-American military officers stationed in the city from the newly independent nations of Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Costa Rica.[65] Following theCavite Mutiny and thePropaganda Movement, the Philippine revolution began; Manila was among the first eight provinces to rebel and their role was commemorated on thePhilippine Flag, on which Manila was represented by one of the eight rays of the symbolic sun.[66]
After the1898 Battle of Manila, Spain ceded the city to the United States. TheFirst Philippine Republic based in nearbyBulacan fought against the Americans for control of the city.[67] The Americans defeated the First Philippine Republic and captured its presidentEmilio Aguinaldo, who pledged allegiance to the U.S. on April 1, 1901.[68]Upon drafting a new charter for Manila in June 1901, the U.S. officially recognized that the city of Manila consisted of Intramuros and the surrounding areas. The new charter proclaimed Manila was composed of eleven municipal districts: Binondo,Ermita, Intramuros,Malate,Paco,Pandacan,Sampaloc,San Miguel,Santa Ana,Santa Cruz, andTondo. TheCatholic Church recognized five parishes as parts of Manila; Gagalangin, Trozo, Balic-Balic,Santa Mesa, and Singalong; and Balut andSan Andres were later added.[69]
Under U.S. control, a new, civilian-orientedInsular Government headed byGovernor-GeneralWilliam Howard Taft invited city plannerDaniel Burnham to adapt Manila to modern needs.[70] The 1905Burnham Plan of Manila recommended improving the city's transit systems by creating diagonal arteries radiating from the new central civic district into areas at the outskirts of the city. It included the development of a road system, the use of waterways for transportation, and the beautification of Manila with waterfront improvements and construction of parks, parkways, and buildings.[71][72]
The planned buildings included a government center occupying all of Wallace Field, which extends fromRizal Park to the presentTaft Avenue. The Philippine capitol was to rise at the Taft Avenue end of the field, facing the sea. Along with buildings for government bureaus and departments, it would form a quadrangle with a central lagoon and a monument toJosé Rizal at the other end of the field.[73] Of Burnham's proposed government centers inLuneta, only three units—the Legislative Building, and the buildings of the Finance and Agricultural Departments—were completed beforeWorld War II began.
During theJapanese occupation of the Philippines, American soldiers were ordered to withdraw from Manila and all military installations were removed by December 24, 1941. Two days later, GeneralDouglas MacArthur declared Manila anopen city to prevent further death and destruction but Japanese warplanes continued bombing the city.[74] Japanese forces occupied Manila on January 2, 1942.[75]
From February 3 to March 3, 1945, Manila was the site ofone of the bloodiest battles in thePacific theater of World War II. Under orders of Japanese Rear AdmiralSanji Iwabuchi, retreating Japanese forceskilled about 100,000 Filipino civilians and perpetrated the mass rape of women in February.[76][77] At the end of the war, Manila had suffered from heavy bombardment and became the second-most-destroyed city of World War II.[78][79] Manila was recaptured by American and Philippine troops.
After the war, reconstruction efforts started. Buildings likeManila City Hall, the Legislative Building (now theNational Museum of Fine Arts), andManila Post Office were rebuilt, and roads and other infrastructures were repaired. In 1948, PresidentElpidio Quirino moved the seat of government of the Philippines toQuezon City, a new capital in the suburbs and fields northeast of Manila, which was created in 1939 during the administration of PresidentManuel L. Quezon.[80] The move ended any implementation of the Burnham Plan's intent for the government center to be at Luneta.WhenArsenio Lacson became the first electedMayor of Manila in 1952, before which all mayors were appointed, Manila underwent a "Golden Age",[81] regaining its pre-war moniker "Pearl of the Orient". After Lacson's term in the 1950s, Manila was led byAntonio Villegas for most of the 1960s.Ramon Bagatsing was mayor from 1972 until the 1986People Power Revolution.[82]
During the administration ofFerdinand Marcos, Metro Manila was created as an integrated unit with the enactment of Presidential Decree No. 824 on November 7, 1975. The area encompassed four cities and thirteen adjoining towns as a separate regional unit of government.[83] On June 24, 1976, the 405th anniversary of the city's founding, President Marcos reinstated Manila as the capital of the Philippines for its historical significance as the seat of government since the Spanish Period.[84][85] At the same time, Marcos designated his wifeImelda Marcos as the first governor of Metro Manila. She started the rejuvenation of the city and re-branded Manila the "City of Man".[86]
Many of the key events of the historical period from the first major protests against the administration ofFerdinand Marcos in January 1970 until his ouster in February 1986 took place within the city of Manila. The first, the January 26, 1970, State of the Nation Address Protest which kicked off the "First Quarter Storm", took place at the Legislative Building (now theNational Museum of Fine Arts) onPadre Burgos Avenue,[87] and the very last saw theMarcos family fleeMalacañang Palace into exile in the United States.[88][89][90]
The beginning weeks of Ferdinand Marcos' second term as president was marked by the1969 balance of payments crisis, which economists trace to his first term tactic of using foreign loans to fund massive government projects in an effort to curry votes.[91][92][93] In protest, protest groups led mostly by students decided to picket Marcos' 1970 State of the Nation Address at the legislative building on January 26. The protesters were initially bickering amongst themselves because both moderate reformist and radical activist groups were present and fighting to gain control of the stage. But all of them, regardless of advocacy, were violently dispersed by thePhilippine Constabulary.[94][95] This was followed by six more major protests which were violently dispersed, from the end of January until March 17, 1970.[89]
Instability continued the following year, with the most significant incident being the August 1971Plaza Miranda bombing caused nine deaths and injured 95 others, including many prominent Liberal Party politicians including incumbent SenatorsJovito Salonga,Eddie Ilarde,Eva Estrada-Kalaw, and Liberal Party presidentGerardo Roxas,Sergio Osmeña Jr., Manila 2nd District Councilor Ambrosio "King" Lorenzo Jr., and CongressmanRamon Bagatsing who was the party's mayoral candidate for Manila.[95]
Marcos reacted to the bombing by blaming the still nascentCommunist Party of the Philippines and then suspending of the writ of Habeas Corpus. The suspension is noted for forcing many members of the moderate opposition, including figures likeEdgar Jopson, to join the ranks of the radicals. In the aftermath of the bombing, Marcos lumped all of the opposition together and referred to them as communists, and many former moderates fled to the mountain encampments of the radical opposition to avoid being arrested by Marcos' forces. Those who became disenchanted with the excesses of the Marcos administration and wanted to join the opposition after 1971 often joined the ranks of the radicals, simply because they represented the only group vocally offering opposition to the Marcos government.[96][97]
Marcos' declaration ofmartial law in September 1972 saw the immediate shutdown of all media not approved by Marcos, including Quezon City media outlets, including the Manila-basedManila Times,Philippines Free Press, The Manila Tribune and thePhilippines Herald. At the same time, it saw the arrest of many students, journalists, academics, and politicians who were considered political threats to Marcos, many of them residents of the City of Manila. The first one wasNinoy Aquino who was arrested just before midnight on September 22 while at a hotel on UN Avenue preparing for a senate committee session the following morning.[95]
About 400 prominent critics of the Marcos administration were jailed in the first few hours of September 23 alone, and eventually about 70,000 individuals becamePolitical detainees under the Marcos dictatorship - most of them arrested without warrants, which is why they were called detainees rather than prisoners.[98][99] At least 11,103 of them have since been officially recognized by the Philippine government as having beenextensively tortured andabused.[100][101] and in April 1973Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila student journalistLiliosa Hilao became the first of these detainees to be killed while in prison[102] - one of 3,257 knownextrajudicial killings during the last 14 years of Marcos' presidency.[103]
Despite Marcos' declaration of martial law, poverty and other social issues persisted, so even with the military in his control, Marcos could not hold back the unrest. A major turning point was reached in Tondo in the form of the1975 La Tondeña Distillery strike which was one of the first major open acts of resistance against the Marcos dictatorship which paved the way for similar protest actions elsewhere in the country.[105] From then, Manila continued to be a center of resistance activity; youth and student demonstrators repeatedly clashed with the police and military.[106]
Another major protest was theSeptember 1984 Welcome Rotonda protest dispersal at the border of Manila and Quezon City, which came in the wake of theAquino assassination the year before in 1983. International pressure had forced Marcos to give the press more freedom, so coverage exposed Filipinos to how opposition figures including 80-year-old former SenatorLorenzo Tañada and 71-year old Manila Times founderChino Roces were waterhosed despite their frailty and how student leaderFidel Nemenzo (later Chancellor of the University of the Philippines Diliman) was shot nearly to death.[107][108][109]
In late 1985, in the face of escalating public discontent and under pressure from foreign allies, Marcos called asnap election with more than a year left in his term, selectingArturo Tolentino as his running mate. The opposition to Marcos united behind Ninoy's widowCorazon Aquino and her running mate,Salvador Laurel.[110][111] The elections were held on February 7, 1986, an exercise marred by widespread reports of violence and tampering of election results.[112]
On February 16, 1986, Corazon Aquino held the "Tagumpay ng Bayan" (People's Victory) rally atLuneta Park, announcing a civil disobedience campaign and calling for her supporters to boycott publications and companies which were associated with Marcos or any of his cronies.[113] The event was attended by a crowd of about two million people.[114] Aquino's camp began making preparations for more rallies, and Aquino herself went toCebu to rally more people to their cause.[115]
Discovering what was happening, the forces which had been organizing Aquino's civil disobedience campaign went to the stretch ofEfipanio De Los Santos Avenue (EDSA) between the two camps, beginning to form a human barricade to keep Marcos loyalist forces from attacking. The crowd grew even larger when Ramos telephoned Manila CardinalJaime Sin for help, and Sin went on Radyo Veritas to invite Catholics to join in protecting Enrile and Ramos.[121] Seeing what was happening, multiple units of the Armed Forces of the Philippines defected Marcos, with air units under the command of General Antonio Sotelo and Colonel Charles Hotchkiss, even performed calculated operations which included strafing the grounds of Malacañang palace with bullets and disabling gunships at nearbyVillamor Airbase.[118]
TheReagan administration eventually decided to offer Marcos a chance to flee into exile. Shortly after midnight on February 26, 1986, the Marcos Family fled Malacañang and were taken toClark Airbase, after which they went into exile inHonolulu along with some select followers includingFabian Ver andDanding Cojuangco.[88] Because the victory had been won by the civilians on the streets rather than the military, the event was dubbed thePeople Power revolution. Ferdinand Marcos' 21 years as President - and his 14 years as authoritarian leader - of the Philippines was over.[88][119]
From 1986 to 1992,Mel Lopez was mayor of Manila, first due to presidential designation, before being elected in 1988.[122] In 1992,Alfredo Lim was elected mayor, the firstChinese-Filipino to hold the office. He was known for his anti-crime crusades. Lim was succeeded byLito Atienza, who served as his vice mayor, and was known for his campaign and slogan "Buhayin ang Maynila" (Revive Manila), which saw the establishment of several parks, and the repair and rehabilitation of the city's deteriorating facilities. He was the city's mayor for nine years before being termed out of office. Lim once again ran for mayor and defeated Atienza's son Ali in the 2007 city election, and immediately reversed all of Atienza's projects,[123] which he said made little contribution to the improvements of the city. The relationship of both parties turned bitter, with them both contesting the2010 city elections, which Lim won. Lim was sued by councilor Dennis Alcoreza on 2008 overhuman rights,[124] he was charged withgraft over the rehabilitation of public schools.[125]
In the2013 election, former PresidentJoseph Estrada succeeded Lim as the city's mayor. During his term, Estrada allegedly paid₱5 billion in city debts and increased the city's revenues. In 2015, in line with PresidentNoynoy Aquino's administration progress, the city became the most-competitive city in the Philippines. In the2016 elections, Estrada narrowly won over Lim.[130] Throughout Estrada's term, numerous Filipino heritage sites were demolished, gutted, or approved for demolition; these include the post-war Santa Cruz Building,Capitol Theater, El Hogar, Magnolia Ice Cream Plant, andRizal Memorial Stadium.[131][132][133] Some of these sites were saved after the intervention of governmental cultural agencies and heritage advocate groups.[134] In May 2019, Estrada said Manila was debt-free;[135] two months later, however, the Commission on Audit said Manila was₱4.4 billion in debt.[136]
Estrada, who was seeking for re-election for his third and final term, lost toIsko Moreno in the2019 local elections.[137][138] Moreno has served as the vice mayor under both Lim and Estrada. Estrada's defeat was seen as the end of their reign as a political clan, whose other family members run for national and local positions.[139] After assuming office, Moreno initiated a city-wide cleanup of illegal vendors, signed an executive order promoting open governance, and vowed to stop bribery and corruption in the city.[140] Under his administration, several ordinances were signed, giving additional perks and privileges to Manila's elderly people,[141] and monthly allowances for Grade 12 Manileño students in all public schools in the city, including students ofUniversidad de Manila and theUniversity of the City of Manila.[142][143]
In 2022,Time Out ranked Manila in 34th position in its list of the 53 best cities in the world, citing it as "an underrated hub for art and culture, with unique customs and cuisine to boot". Manila was also voted the third-most-resilient and least-rude city for the year's index.[144][145] In 2023, the search site Crossword Solm utilizing internet geotagging, showed that Manila is the world's most loving capital city.[146]
In August 2023, PresidentBongbong Marcos suspended allreclamation projects inManila Bay, including those in the City of Manila.[147] However, the city has no objections and is willing to pursue the suspended reclamation projects.[148]
In 2024, Manila, as the nation's seat of government, witnessed the launch of the Fourth Philippine Human Rights Plan, aimed at advancing social justice, inclusivity, and human rights protection in line with international standards.[149]
Manila Bay sunsetManila Dolomite Beach during the International Coastal Cleanup Day in September 2020A map showing the territorial extent and assets or properties of Manila, including its territorial exclaveManila South Cemetery, and Manila Boystown Complex, which is a property inMarikina owned by the Manila city government.
The City of Manila is situated on the eastern shore ofManila Bay, on the western coast ofLuzon, 1,300 km (810 mi) from mainland Asia.[150] The protected harbor on which Manila lies is regarded as the finest in Asia.[151] ThePasig River flows through the middle of city, dividing it into north and south.[152][153] The overallgrade of the city's central, built-up areas is relatively consistent with the natural flatness of the natural geography, generally exhibiting only slight differentiation.[154]
Almost all of Manila sits on top prehistoricalluvial deposits built by the waters of the Pasig River and on land reclaimed fromManila Bay. Manila's land has been substantially altered by human intervention; there has been considerable land reclamation along the waterfronts since the early-to-mid twentieth century. Some of the city's natural variations in topography have been leveled. As of 2013[update], Manila had a total area of 42.88 square kilometers (16.56 sq mi).[152][153]
In 2017, the City Government approved five reclamation projects; the New Manila Bay–City of Pearl (New Manila Bay International Community) (407.43 hectares (1,006.8 acres)), Solar City (148 hectares (370 acres)), Manila Harbour Center expansion (50 hectares (120 acres)), Manila Waterfront City (318 hectares (790 acres)),[155] andHorizon Manila (419 hectares (1,040 acres)). Of the five planned projects, only Horizon Manila was approved by thePhilippine Reclamation Authority in December 2019 and was scheduled for construction in 2021.[156]
Another reclamation project is possible and when built, it will include in-city housing relocation projects.[157] Environmental activists and theCatholic Church have criticized the land reclamation projects, saying they are not sustainable and would put communities at risk of flooding.[158][159] In line of the upcoming reclamation projects, the Philippines and the Netherlands agreed to a cooperation on the ₱250 million Manila Bay Sustainable Development Master Plan to oversee future decisions on projects on Manila Bay.[160]
Manila is divided into six congressional districts.A district map of Manila showing its sixteen districts
Manila is made up of 897barangays,[161] which are grouped into 100 zones for statistical convenience. Manila has the most barangays of any metropolis in the Philippines.[162] Due to a failure to hold a plebiscite, attempts at reducing its number have not succeeded despite local legislation—Ordinance 7907, passed on April 23, 1996—reducing the number from 896 to 150 by merging existing barangays.[163]
District I (2020 population: 441,282)[164] covers the western part of Tondo and is made up of 136 barangays. It is the most-densely populated congressional district and is also known asTondo I. The district includes one of the biggest urban-poor communities;Smokey Mountain on Balut Island was once known as the country's largest landfill where thousands of impoverished people lived in slums. After the closure of the landfill in 1995, mid-rise housing was built on the site. This district also contains the Manila North Harbor Center, Manila North Harbor, and Manila International Container Terminal of thePort of Manila. The 1st District also covers Manila's borders withNavotas and a part of the southern enclave ofCaloocan.
District II (2020 population: 212,938)[164] covers the eastern part of Tondo and contains 122 barangays. It is also referred to asTondo II. It includes Gagalangin, a prominent place in Tondo, andDivisoria, a popular shopping area and the site of theMain Terminal Station of thePhilippine National Railways. The 2nd District also covers the rest of Manila's border withCaloocan.
District III (2020 population: 220,029)[164] covers Binondo, Quiapo, San Nicolas and Santa Cruz. It contains 123 barangays and includes "Downtown Manila", the historic business district of the city, and the oldest Chinatown in the world. The 3rd District also covers a part of Manila's border withQuezon City.
District IV (2020 population: 277,013)[164] covers Sampaloc and some parts of Santa Mesa. It contains 192 barangays and has numerous colleges and universities, which are located along the city's "University Belt", ade facto sub-district. Included here is theUniversity of Santo Tomas, the oldest-existing university in Asia, which was established in 1611. The institution was home to at least 30 Catholic saints.[165][166] The 4th District also covers portions of Manila's borders with Quezon City andSan Juan.
District VI (2020 population: 300,186)[164] covers Pandacan, San Miguel, Santa Ana, Santa Mesa, and the rest of Paco. It contains 139 barangays and includesMalacañang Palace, the residence and workplace of thePresident of the Philippines. Santa Ana district is known for its 18th centurySanta Ana Church andhistoric ancestral houses. The 6th District also covers the rest of Manila's borders with Quezon City, San Juan, Makati and Pasay.
Under theKöppen climate classification system, Manila has atropical monsoon climate (KöppenAm), closely bordering on atropical savanna climate (KöppenAw). Together with the rest of the Philippines, Manila lies entirely within the tropics. Its proximity to the equator means temperatures are high year-round especially during the daytime, rarely going below 19 °C (66.2 °F) or above 39 °C (102.2 °F). Temperature extremes have ranged from 14.5 °C (58.1 °F) on January 11, 1914,[168] to 38.6 °C (101.5 °F) on May 7, 1915.[169]
Humidity levels are usually very high all year round, making the air feel hotter than its actual temperature. Manila has a distinctdry season lasting from late December to early April. A relatively lengthywet season that covers the remaining period, with slightly cooler daytime temperatures and slightly warmer nighttime temperatures. In the wet season, rain rarely falls all day, but rainfall is very heavy for short periods.Typhoons usually occur from June to September.[170]
Climate data for Port Area, Manila (1991–2020, extremes 1885–2024)
Swiss Re ranked Manila as the second-riskiest capital city to live in, citing its exposure to natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, floods, and landslides.[19] The seismically activeMarikina Valley Fault System poses a threat of a large-scale earthquake with an estimatedmagnitude of between 6 and 7, and as high as 7.6[174] to Metro Manila and nearby provinces.[175] Manila has experienced several deadly earthquakes, notably those of1645 and 1677, which destroyed the stone-and-brick medieval city.[176] Architects during the Spanish colonial period used theEarthquake Baroque style to adapt to the region's frequent earthquakes.[177]
Manila experiences between five and seven typhoons each year.[178] In 2009,Typhoon Ketsana (Ondoy) struck the Philippines, leading to one of the worst floods in Metro Manila and several provinces in Luzon with an estimated damages worth ₱11 billion (US$237 million),[179][180] and caused 448 deaths in Metro Manila alone. Following the aftermath of Typhoon Ketsana, the city began to dredge its rivers and improve its drainage network.
Metro Manila is situated in a variety of ecosystems includingupland forests,mangrove forests,mudflats, sandy beaches,sea grass meadows andcoral reefs. Metro Manila is home to urban parks, nature parks, plazas, nature reserves, and an arboretum. However, according to the Asian Green City Index, in 2007 Manila contained only an average of 4.5 square meters (48 sq ft) of green space per person, well below the index average of 39 square meters (420 sq ft)[182] and below theWorld Health Organization (WHO) recommended minimum of 9 square meters (97 sq ft) per person.[183][184]
TheArroceros Forest Park is a 2.2-hectare (5.4-acre)nature park situated in the heart of downtown Manila along the south bank of thePasig River. Considered as the "last lung of Manila", the park was professionally planned in 1993 with itssecondary growth forest of 61 different native tree varieties and 8,000 ornamental plants providing a habitat for about 10 different bird species.[185]
Air pollution in Manila is due to industrial waste and automobiles.[186][187] Swiss firmIQAir reported in December 2020 Manila experienced an averagePM2.5 concentration of 6.1×10−6 g/m3 (1.03×10−8 lb/cu yd), which is classed as "Good" according to recommendations made by the World Health Organization.[188]
According to a report in 2003, the Pasig River is one of the most-polluted rivers in the world in which 150 metric tons (150 long tons; 170 short tons) of domestic waste and 75 metric tons (74 long tons; 83 short tons) of industrial waste are dumped daily.[189][needs update] The city is the second-biggest waste producing metropolis in the country with 1,151.79 tons (7,500.07 cubic meters (264,862 cu ft)) per day, after Quezon City, which produces 1,386.84 tons (12,730.59 cubic meters (449,577 cu ft)) per day. Both cities were cited as having poor management in garbage collection and disposal.[190] A 2021 report by Oxford University's Our World in Data estimated eighty one percent of global ocean plastic comes from rivers in Asia and the Philippines itself contributes one third of that number, and the Pasig River is one of the main contributors.[191]
Rehabilitation efforts have resulted in the creation of parks along the riverside and stricter pollution controls.[192][193] In 2019, theDepartment of Environment and Natural Resources launched a rehabilitation program for Manila Bay that will be administered by different government agencies.[194][195]
Manila is aplanned city. In 1905, American architect and urban plannerDaniel Burnham was commissioned to design the new capital.[196] His design for the city was based on theCity Beautiful movement, which favored broad streets and avenues radiating out from rectangles. Manila is made up of fourteen city districts, according to Republic Act No. 409—the Revised Charter of the City of Manila—the basis of which officially sets the present-day boundary of the city.[12] The districtsSanta Mesa, which was partitioned from Sampaloc,[197] andSan Andres, which was partitioned off from Santa Ana, were later created.
Manila's mix ofarchitectural styles reflects its, and the Philippines', turbulent history. During World War II, Manila was razed to the ground by Japanese forces and the shelling of American forces.[198][199] After the war ended, rebuilding began and most of the historical buildings were reconstructed. Many of the historic churches and buildings in Intramuros, Manila's historic core, however, had been damaged beyond repair.[200] Manila's current urban landscape is one of modern and contemporary architecture. Manila's historic sites under the entry ofThe Walled City and Historic Monuments of Manila is currently being proposed to the tentative list for futureUNESCOWorld Heritage Site inscription.[201]
Manila is known for its eclectic mix of architecture that includes a wide range of styles spanning the city's historical and cultural periods. Its architectural styles reflect American, Spanish, Chinese, and Malay influences.[202] Prominent Filipino architects including Antonio Toledo,[203] Felipe Roxas,[204]Juan M. Arellano[205] andTomás Mapúa have designed significant buildings in Manila such as churches, government offices, theaters, mansions, schools, and universities.[206]
Manila is known forits Art Deco theaters, some of which were designed byJuan Nakpil andPablo Antonio.[207] The historicEscolta Street in Binondo has many buildings ofNeoclassical andBeaux-Arts architectural styles, many of which were designed by prominent Filipino architects during the American colonial period between the 1920s and the late 1930s. Many architects, artists, historians, and heritage advocacy groups are campaigning for the restoration of Escolta Street, which was once the premier street of the Philippines.[208]
Almost all of Manila's pre-war and Spanish colonial architecture was destroyed during the1945 Battle of Manila by intensive bombardment by the United States Air Force. Reconstruction took place afterward, replacing the destroyed historic Spanish-era buildings with modern ones, erasing much of the city's character. Some of the destroyed buildings, such as the Old Legislative Building (now theNational Museum of Fine Arts),Ayuntamiento de Manila (now the Bureau of the Treasury), and the under-constructionSan Ignacio Church and Convent (as theMuseo de Intramuros), have been reconstructed. There are plans to refurbish and restore several neglected historic buildings and places such as Plaza Del Carmen,San Sebastian Church, and theNCCA Metropolitan Theater. Spanish-era shops and houses in the districts ofBinondo,Quiapo, andSan Nicolas are also planned to be restored as a part of a movement to restore the city to its pre-war state.[209][210]
Because Manila is prone to earthquakes, Spanish colonial architects invented a style calledEarthquake Baroque, which churches and government buildings during the Spanish colonial period adopted.[177] As a result, succeeding earthquakes of the 18th and 19th centuries barely affected Manila, although they periodically leveled the surrounding area. Modern buildings in and around Manila are designed or have been retrofitted to withstand an 8.2 magnitude quake in accordance with the country's building code.[211]
According to the2020 Philippine census, Manila has a population of 1,846,513 people, making it thesecond-most-populous city in the Philippines.[218] Manila isthe most-densely populated city in the world, with 41,515 inhabitants per km2 in 2015.[7] District 6 is listed as the densest with 68,266 inhabitants per km2, followed by District 1 with 64,936 and District 2 with 64,710. District 5 is the least-densely populated area with 19,235.[219]
Manila has been presumed to be the Philippines' largest city since the establishment of a permanent Spanish settlement, and eventually became the political, commercial, and ecclesiastical capital of the country.[220] Since colonial times, Manila has been the destination of peoples whose origins are as wide-ranging as India[221] and Latin America.[222] Practicingforensic anthropology, while exhuming cranial bones in several Philippine cemeteries, researcher Matthew C. Go estimated that 7% of the mean amount, among the samples exhumed, have attribution to European descent.[223] Research work published in the Journal of Forensic Anthropology, collating contemporary Anthropological data show that the percentage of Filipino bodies who were sampled from theUniversity of the Philippines, that isphenotypically classified as Asian (East,South andSoutheast Asian) is 72.7%, Hispanic (Spanish-Amerindian Mestizo,Latin American, and/or Spanish-MalayMestizo) is at 12.7%, Indigenous American (Native American) at 7.3%, African at 4.5%, and European at 2.7%.[224] However, this is only according to an interpretation of the data wherein the reference groups, which were cross checked to the Filipino samples; for the Hispanic category, wereMexican-Americans,[224] and the reference groups for the: European, African, and Indigenous American, categories, were:White Americans,Black Americans, andNative Americans from the USA, while the Asian reference groups were sourced from Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese origins.[224] In contrast, a different anthropology study using Morphoscopic ancestry estimates in Filipino crania using multivariate probit regression models by J. T. Hefner, while analyzing Historic and Modern samples of Philippine skeletons, paint a different picture,[225] in that, when the reference group for "Asian" was Thailand (Southeast Asians) rather than Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese; the reference for "Africans" included West and East Africans, along with Black Americans; and the reference group for "Hispanic" wasColombians (South Americans) rather than Mexicans,[225] the historical and modern sample results for Filipinos, yielded the following ratios: Asian at 48.6%, African at 32.9%, which is attributed to extensive admixture with Negritos since the initial peopling of the Filipino archipleago, and only a small portion classifying as either European at 12.9%, and finally for Hispanic at 5.7%.[225]
Between the 1860s and 1890s, in urban areas of the Philippines – especially Manila – according to burial statistics, as much as 3.3% of the population were pure European Spaniards and pure Chinese composed 9.9% of the city's populace. The Spanish-Filipino and Chinese-Filipino Mestizo populations also fluctuated, with the mixed Spanish-Filipinos composing 19% of Manila's population.[57]: 539 Eventually, these non-native categories diminished because they were assimilated into the majority Austronesian Filipino population.[226] During the Philippine Revolution, the term "Filipino" included people of any race born in the Philippines.[227][228] This explains the abrupt drop of the proportion of Chinese, Spanish, and Mestizo peoples across the country by the time of the first American census in 1903, as the foreign and mixed descended peoples identified solely as pure Filipinos.[229] Manila's population dramatically increased since the 1903 census because people tended to move from rural areas to towns and cities. In the 1960 census, Manila became the first Philippine city to exceed one million people – more than five times of its 1903 population. The city continued to grow until the population stabilized at 1.6 million and experienced alternating increases and decreases starting in the 1990 census year. This phenomenon may be attributed to the higher growth experienced by suburbs and the already-very-high population density of the city. As such, Manila exhibited a decreasing percentage share of the metropolitan population[230] from 63% in the 1950s to 27.5%[231] in 1980, and 13.8% in 2015. The much-largerQuezon City marginally surpassed the population of Manila in 1990 and by the 2015 census it already has 1.1 million more people. Nationally, the population of Manila was expected to be overtaken by cities with larger territories such asCaloocan andDavao City by 2020.[232] The vernacular language isFilipino, which is mostly based on theTagalog language of the city and its surroundings, and this Manilan form of spoken Tagalog has become thelingua franca of the Philippines, having spread throughout the archipelago through mass media and entertainment.English is the language most widely used in education and business, and is in heavy everyday use throughout Metro Manila and the rest of the Philippines.
Philippine Hokkien, which is locally known asLan-nang-oe, a variant ofSouthern Min, is mainly spoken by the city'sChinese-Filipino community. According to data provided by the Bureau of Immigration, 3.12 million Chinese citizens arrived in the Philippines from January 2016 to May 2018.[233]
Crime in Manila is concentrated in areas that are associated with poverty, drug abuse, and gangs. Crime in the city is also directly related to its changing demographics and unique criminal justice system. Theillegal drug trade is a major problem of the city; inMetro Manila alone, 92% of the barangays were affected by illegal drugs in February 2015.[234]
From 2010 to 2015, Manila had the second-highest index crime rates in the Philippines, with 54,689 cases or an average of about 9,100 cases per year.[235] By October 2017,Manila Police District (MPD) reported a 38.7% decrease in index crimes from 5,474 cases in 2016 to 3,393 in 2017. MPD's crime-solution efficiency also improved; six-to-seven of every ten crimes were solved by the city police force.[236] MPD was cited as the Best Police District in Metro Manila in 2017 for registering the highest crime-solution efficiency.[237]
Skyline ofBinondo, the central business district of the city of Manila.
Manila is a major center for commerce, banking and finance, retailing, transportation, tourism, real estate,new media,traditional media, advertising, legal services, accounting, insurance, theater, fashion, and the arts. Around 60,000 establishments operate in the city.[249] In 2024, Manila is the4th largest economy in the Philippines, with a 4.7% share to the national gross domestic product totaling ₱1.04 trillion.[250]
The National Competitiveness Council of the Philippines, which annually publishes the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI), ranks the country's cities, municipalities, and provinces according to their economic dynamism, government efficiency, and infrastructure. According to the 2022 CMCI, Manila was the second-most-competitivehighly urbanized city in the Philippines.[251] Manila held the title of the country's most-competitive city in 2015, and since then has been in the top three, denoting Manila is consistently one of the best place to live in and do business.[252] The city has an estimatedGDP of ₱987.88 billion[253] and is the 3rd largest economy of theNational Capital Region, accounting for 15% of the region's total economy as of 2023.[254]
Binondo, the oldest and one of the largestChinatowns in the world, was the center of commerce and business activities in the city. Numerous residential and office skyscrapers occupy its medieval streets. As of 2013, plans by the city government of Manila to turn the Chinatown area into abusiness process outsourcing (BPO) hub were in progress; thirty unoccupied buildings had been already identified for conversion into BPO offices. Most of these buildings are onEscolta Street, Binondo.[255]
ThePort of Manila is the largest seaport in the Philippines and the main international shipping route into the country. ThePhilippine Ports Authority oversees the operation and management of the country's ports.International Container Terminal Services Inc., according to theAsian Development Bank, is one of the top-five major maritime terminal operators in the world,[256][257] and has its headquarters and main operations at the Port of Manila. Another port operator, Asian Terminal Incorporated, has its corporate office and main operations atManila South Harbor, and its container depository is inSanta Mesa. Manila is classified as a Medium-Port Megacity, using the Southampton system for port-city classification.[258]
Manufacturers within the city produce industrial-related products such as chemicals, textiles, clothing, electronic goods, food, beverages, and tobacco products. Local businesses process primary commodities for export, including rope, plywood, refined sugar,copra, and coconut oil. The food-processing industry is one of the most-stable manufacturing sector in the city.[259]
Pandacan oil depot houses the storage facilities and distribution terminals ofCaltex Philippines,Pilipinas Shell, andPetron Corporation; the major players in the country's petroleum industry. The oil depot has been a subject of various concerns, including its environmental and health impact on the residents of Manila. The Supreme Court ordered the oil depot to be relocated outside the city by July 2015,[260][261] but it failed to meet this deadline. Most of the oil depot facility inside the 33-hectare (82-acre) compound were demolished,[262] and plans have been made to convert it into a transport hub or food park.[263]
Rizal Park, also known as Luneta Park, is a national park and the largest urban park in Asia.[272] with an area of 58 hectares (140 acres),[273] The park was constructed to honor of the country's national heroJosé Rizal, who was executed by the Spaniards on charges of subversion. The flagpole west of the Rizal Monument is theKilometer Zero marker for distances to locations across the country. The park is managed by the National Parks and Development Committee.[274]
The 0.67-square-kilometer (0.26 sq mi) Walled City ofIntramuros is the historic center of Manila. It is administered by theIntramuros Administration, an attached agency of theDepartment of Tourism. It containsManila Cathedral and the 18th CenturySan Agustin Church, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.Kalesa is a popular mode of transportation for tourists in Intramuros and nearby places including Binondo, Ermita and Rizal Park.[275] Binondo, the oldest Chinatown in the world, was established in 1521[276] and served as a hub of Chinese commerce before the Spaniards colonized the Philippines. Its main attractions areBinondo Church, Filipino-Chinese Friendship Arch, Seng Guan Buddhist Temple, and authentic Chinese restaurants.
Manila is designated as the country's leading destination formedical tourism, which is estimated to annually generate $1 billion in revenue.[277] Lack of a progressive health system, inadequate infrastructure, and the unstable political environment are seen as hindrances to its growth.[278]
The oldTutuban Main Station built in 1892, which is now converted to a shopping mallDivisoria is a popular flea market for locals and tourists. Shown is the interior of168 Shopping Mall.
Manila is regarded as one of the best shopping destinations in Asia.[279][280] Major shopping malls, department stores, markets, supermarkets, and bazaars are located within the city.
Divisoria in Tondo has been locally described as a "shopping mecca" of Manila.[281][282] Shopping malls sell goods at bargain prices. Small vendors occupy several roads, causing pedestrian and vehicular traffic. A well-known landmark in Divisoria is theTutuban Center, a large shopping mall that is a part of thePhilippine National Railways'Main Station. It attracts 1 million people every month and is expected to add another 400,000 people upon the completion of theLRT Line 2 West Extension, making it Manila's busiest transfer station.[283] Another "lifestyle mall" isLucky Chinatown. There are almost 1 million shoppers in Divisoria according to the Manila Police District.[284]
Binondo, the oldest Chinatown in the world,[49] is the city's center of commerce and trade for all types of businesses run by Filipino-Chinese merchants, with a wide variety of shops and restaurants.Quiapo is referred to as the "Old Downtown", wheretiangges, markets, boutique shops, music and electronics stores are common.[285] Many department stores are onRecto Avenue.
Bahay Tsinoy, one of Manila's prominent museums, documents the lives of Chinese people and their contributions to the history of the Philippines.[297][298] Intramuros Light and Sound Museum chronicles Filipinos' desire for freedom duringthe revolution under Rizal's leadership and other revolutionary leaders. TheMetropolitan Museum of Manila houses modern and contemporary visual arts, and exhibits Filipino arts andculture.[299]
Sports in Manila have a long and distinguished history. The city's, and in general the country's, main sport isbasketball. Most barangays have a basketball court or a makeshift one, and court markings are frequently drawn on the streets. Larger barangays have covered courts where inter-barangay leagues are held every April to May. Manila's major sports venues includeRizal Memorial Sports Complex and San Andres Gym, the base of the now-defunctManila Metrostars.[306]
Manila celebrates civic and national holidays. Because most of the city's residents are Roman Catholic,[315][316] most of the festivals are religious in nature. Araw ng Maynila, which celebrates the city's founding on June 24, 1571[317] by the SpanishconquistadorMiguel López de Legazpi, was first proclaimed by the city's vice mayorHerminio A. Astorga in June 1962. It has been annually commemorated under thepatronage ofJohn the Baptist, and has always been declared by the national government as a special, non-working holiday through presidential proclamations. Each of the city's 896 barangays have their own festivities, which are guided by their ownpatron saints.[citation needed]
The city has no control overIntramuros andManila North Harbor. The historic Walled City is administered by theIntramuros Administration while Manila North Harbor is managed by thePhilippine Ports Authority. Both are national government agencies. The barangays that have jurisdictions over these places oversee the welfare of the city's constituents but cannot exercise their executive powers. Manila had a 12,971 personnel complement at the end of 2018.[326] Under the proposed form offederalism in the Philippines, Manila may no longer be the capital and Metro Manila may no longer be the seat of government; the committee has not yet decided on the federal capital and states they are open to other proposals.[327][328]
As of June 2025, the mayor isIsko Moreno, who is on his second mayoral stint. The vice mayor isChi Atienza, daughter of former mayorLito Atienza. The mayor and the vice mayor are limited to up-to three terms, each term lasting for three years. The city has an ordinance penalizingcat-calling since 2018, and is the second city in the Philippines to do so after Quezon City, which passed a similar ordinance in 2016.[329] In 2017, the city government planned to revise the existing curfew ordinance since the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in August that year. Of the three cities reviewed by the Supreme Court; the City of Manila,Navotas, and Quezon City; only the curfew ordinance of Quezon City was approved.[330][331]
Manila, being the seat of political power in the Philippines, has the headquarters of several national government offices. Planning for the city's role as the center of government started during the early years ofAmerican colonization, when the U.S. envisioned a well-designed city outside the walls of Intramuros, and chose Bagumbayan, a former town that is now Jose Rizal Park to become the center of government. A design commission was given toDaniel Burnham to create a master plan for the city patterned afterWashington, D.C.[332] but the plans were abandoned under the Commonwealth Government ofManuel L. Quezon.[citation needed]
A new government center was to be built on the hills northeast of Manila, in what is now Quezon City. Several government agencies have set up their headquarters in Quezon City. Several key government offices are still based in Manila. Many of the plans were substantially altered after the devastation of Manila during World War II and by subsequent administrations.[citation needed]
In the 2019 Annual Audit Report published by theCommission on Audit, the revenue of the City of Manila was ₱16.534 billion.[326] It is one of the cities with the highest tax collection and internal revenue allotment.[336] For the 2019 fiscal year, the tax revenue collected by the city was ₱8.4 billion. The city's Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) from the National Treasury was ₱2.94 billion, and the city's total assets were worth ₱63.4 billion in 2019.[326] The City of Manila has the highest budget allocation for healthcare of all the cities and municipalities in the Philippines; the city maintains the six district hospitals, 59 health centers and lying-in clinics, and healthcare programs.[citation needed]
Smokey Mountain Housing Project was built on a former landfill. Continuous development of housing buildings continues up to the present day.
Development of public housing in Manila began in the 1930s under U.S. rule. Americans had to deal with the problem of sanitation and concentration of settlers around business areas.[337] Business codes and sanitation laws were implemented in the 1930s. During this period until the 1950s, new communities were opened for relocation. Among these were Projects 1–8 in Quezon City[338] and the Vitas tenement houses in Tondo.[339] In 1947, the government implemented a public housing policy that established the People's Homesite and Housing Corporation (PHHC).[340] A few years later, it established a Slum Clearance Committee which, with the help of the PHHC, relocated thousands of families from Manila and Quezon City to Sapang Palay inSan Jose del Monte, Bulacan in the 1960s.[341]
In 2016, the national government completed several medium-rise houses for 300 Manila residents whose slum community was destroyed by a fire in 2011.[342] As of 2019, the city government plans to retrofit dilapidated tenements within the city,[343] and will construct new housing buildings for the city's informal settlers such as the 14-story Tondominium 1 and Tondomium 2 buildings, containing 42-square-meter (450 sq ft), two-bedroom units. The construction of these new in-city vertical housing projects was funded by a loan from theDevelopment Bank of the Philippines and theLand Bank of the Philippines.[344][345]
Since 2019, the Manila City Government has initiated six housing projects: Tondominium 1 & 2, Binondominium, Basecommunity, San Lazaro Residences, Pedro Gil Residences, and San Sebastian Residences.[346][347][348]
One of the best-known modes of transportation in Manila is thejeepney, which were patterned afterU.S. Army jeeps and have been in use since the mid-to-late 1940s.[349] TheTamaraw FX, the third generation of theToyota Kijang, once directly competed with jeepneys and followed fixed routes for a set price. They were replaced by theUV Express. All types of public road transportation in Manila are privately owned and operated under government-issued franchises.[citation needed]
On a for-hire basis, the city is served bytaxicabs, "tricycles" – motorcycles with sidecars—the Philippine version of theauto rickshaw), and "trisikads", "sikads" or "kuligligs"; bicycles with sidecars, the Philippine version ofpedicabs), which are popular In some areas, especially Divisoria. Spanish-era horse-drawncalesas are a popular tourist attraction and mode of transportation in Binondo and Intramuros. Manila will phase out all gasoline-run tricycles and pedicabs, and replace them with electric tricycles (e-trikes), and plans to distribute 10,000 e-trikes to qualified tricycle drivers from the city.[350][351] By January 2018, the city has distributed e-trikes to a number of drivers and operators in Binondo, Ermita,Malate, and Santa Cruz.[352]
Manila is serviced byLRT Line 1 (LRT-1) andLine 2 (LRT-2), which form theManila Light Rail Transit System. Development of the light rail system began in the 1970s during the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos, when the LRT Line 1 was built, making it the first light-rail system in Southeast Asia. Despite its name, LRT-1 operates as alight metro, running on dedicated rights-of-way. LRT 2 operates as a full-metro, heavy rail system. As of 2015, these systems were undergoing a multi-billion-dollar expansion.[353] The LRT runs along the length ofTaft Avenue (N170/R-2) andRizal Avenue (N150/R-9), while LRT-2 runs alongClaro M. Recto Avenue (N145/C-1) andRamon Magsaysay Boulevard (N180/R-6) from Santa Cruz, through Quezon City, and to Masinag inAntipolo,Rizal.
Tutuban station, the central terminal of thePhilippine National Railways, lies within Manila.[354][355] Within Metro Manila, one commuter railway is in operation. The line runs in a general north–south direction from Tutuban (Tondo) toward the province ofLaguna. The Port of Manila, which is located in the western section of the city on Manila Bay, is the largest and chief seaport of the Philippines.[356] ThePasig River Ferry Service is another form of transportation.[357] The city is also served byNinoy Aquino International Airport, the country's main international airport and domestic air hub.[358]
Trolleys, hand-made human-powered metal handcarts operated by "trolley boys", transport people along sections of the PNR lines. This is a popular means of transportation because it is low-cost – roughly ₱10 or US$.20 per trip – and avoids traffic. Many trolley boys are homeless and live alongside the railroad line, which is actively used by passenger trains, making collisions with passenger trains a consistent danger, although casualties are rare. The trolley rides are unofficial and unregulated but tolerated by authorities.[359][360][361][362]
Satellite navigation companyTomTom ranked Manila as the second world's most-traffic-congested city in 2019.[363] According toWaze's 2015 "Global Driver Satisfaction Index", Manila has the worst traffic worldwide.[364] Manila is notorious for its frequenttraffic jams and high densities.[365] The government has undertaken several projects to alleviate the traffic in the city, some of which include the proposed construction of a new viaduct or underpass at the intersection ofEspaña Boulevard andLacson Avenue;[366] the construction ofSkyway Stage 3, andNLEX Connector; the proposed LRT Line 2 West Extension Project from Recto Avenue to Pier 4 of Manila North Harbor;[367] the construction of theNorth–South Commuter Railway (NSCR);[368] the proposed construction of the PNR East–West line (MRT Line 8) through España Boulevard to Quezon City; and the expansion and widening of several national and local roads. These projects had yet to make any meaningful impact by 2014, and the traffic jams and congestion continue.[369]
The government, under its 2014Metro Manila Dream Plan aims to address these urban transport problems. The plan is a list of short-term priority projects and medium-to-long-term infrastructure projects that will last up to 2030.[370][371]
Water services used to be provided by theMetropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), which served 30% of the city. Most other sewage was directly dumped into storm drains, septic tanks, and open canals.[372] MWSS wasprivatized in 1997, which split the water concession into east and west zones.Maynilad Water Services took over the west zone, of which Manila is a part.[373]
As of 2001, Maynilad Water Services provides the supply and delivery of potable water, and sewerage system in Manila.[374] The southeastern part of the city, which belongs to the east zone, is served byManila Water.[375] Electricity services are provided byMeralco, the sole electricity distributor in Metro Manila.[376]
Manila Health Department is responsible for the planning and implementation of healthcare programs provided by the city government. Manila Health Department operates 59 health centers and six city-run hospitals, which are free of charge for the city's constituents. The six public city-run hospitals areOspital ng Maynila Medical Center, Ospital ng Sampaloc, Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center, Ospital ng Tondo,Santa Ana Hospital, and Justice Jose Abad Santos General Hospital.[378]Philippine General Hospital, a tertiary state-owned hospital in Manila, is operated by theUniversity of the Philippines Manila. The city is planning to build an education, research, and hospital facility forcleft lip and cleft palate patients,[379][380] and to establish the first children's surgical hospital in Southeast Asia.[381]
The city government provides free immunization programs for children, who are specifically targeted against hepatitis B, hemophilus influenza B pneumonia, diphtheria, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, and rubella. As of 2016, 31,115 children aged one and below have been fully immunized.[391] Manila Dialysis Center, which provides free services for the poor, has been cited by the United Nations Committee on Innovation, Competitiveness and Public-Private Partnerships as a model for public-private partnership (PPP) projects.[392][393] The dialysis facility was named Flora V. Valisno de Siojo Dialysis Center in 2019, and was inaugurated as the largest free dialysis facility in the Philippines. It has 91 dialysis machines, which can be expanded up to 100, matching the capabilities of theNational Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI).[394][395]
Manila has been a center of education since the colonial period.[396] The city has several Philippine universities and colleges, some of which are the county's oldest. The city'sUniversity Belt has a high concentration of colleges and universities, which are a short walking distance of each other. The University Belt is at the boundaries betweenSan Miguel,Quiapo, andSampaloc districts, while other clusters colleges lie along the southern bank of the Pasig River – mostly in Intramuros and Ermita districts; and at the southernmost part ofMalate near the city limits.
TheUniversity of the Philippines (1908), the country's main state university, was established in Ermita, Manila. It moved its central administrative offices from Manila to Diliman in 1949 and eventually made the original campus theUniversity of the Philippines Manila, the oldest of the constituent universities of the University of the Philippines System, and the center of health-sciences education in the country.[400] Manila is also the site of the main campus of thePolytechnic University of the Philippines, the largest university in the country in terms of student population.[401]
The city's three-tier public education system, theDivision of the City Schools of Manila, is a branch of theDepartment of Education. The division oversees 71 public elementary schools and 32 public high schools, all located within the city's territory, except for Rafael Palma Elementary School, which is situated in Barangay La Paz,Makati, near the border with Manila.[402] The city also containsManila Science High School, a pilot science high school.[403]
Manila hosts the foreign embassies of theUnited States[436] and Vietnam.[437] Honorary consulates of Belize, Burkina Faso, Jordan, Nepal, Poland, Iceland, Paraguay, Thailand, and Tunisia are based in the city.[438]
^This was spurred by a locally found sacred image, i.e., aBlack Madonna of unknown origin; one theory is that it is from Portuguese-Macau, another is that it is a Tantric goddess and this was worshiped by the natives in a Pagan-Hindu manner and had survived Islamic iconoclasm by the Sultanate of Brunei. This image was interpreted to be of Marian nature, and it was found during the Miguel de Legazpi expedition and eventually, a Mexican hermit built a chapel around that image.
^The city limits was at Vicente Sotto Street. The rest of the place south of the street belongs toPasay. Buildings and structures in CCP that falls under the jurisdiction of Manila includes the National Theater.
^Junker, Laura Lee (2000).Raiding, Trading, and Feasting: The Political Economy of Philippine Chiefdoms. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press. pp. 184–192.ISBN978-9715503471.
^Lopez, V.B. (April 1, 1974). "Culture Contact and Ethnogenesis in Mindoro up to the End of the Spanish Rule".The Asian Center.12 (1): 3 – via Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia.
^The "Indo-Pacific" Crossroads:The Asian Waters as Conduits of Knowledge, People, Cargoes, and Technologies Page 107 (Citing:"Wang 1953; Tanaka Takeo 1961.")
^Bartolome Juan Leonardy y de Argensola, Conquistas de las islas Molucas (Madrid: Alonso Martin, 1909) pp. 351-8; Cesar Majul, Muslims in the Philippines (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1973) pp. 119-20; Hal, History of Southeast Asia, pp. 249-50.
^Barrows, David (2014)."A History of the Philippines".Guttenburg Free Online E-books.1: 179.Within the walls, there were some six hundred houses of a private nature, most of them built of stone and tile, and an equal number outside in the suburbs, or "arrabales", all occupied by Spaniards ("todos son vivienda y poblacion de los Españoles"). This gives some twelve hundred Spanish families or establishments, exclusive of the religious, who in Manila numbered at least one hundred and fifty, the garrison, at certain times, about four hundred trained Spanish soldiers who had seen service in Holland and the Low Countries, and the official classes.
^"In 1637 the military force maintained in the islands consisted of one thousand seven hundred and two Spaniards and one hundred and forty Indians." ~Memorial de D. Juan Grau y Monfalcon, Procurador General de las Islas Filipinas, Docs. Inéditos del Archivo de Indias, vi, p. 425. "In 1787 the garrison at Manila consisted of one regiment of Mexicans comprising one thousand three hundred men, two artillery companies of eighty men each, three cavalry companies of fifty men each."La Pérouse, ii, p. 368.
^(Page 10)Pérez, Marilola (2015).Cavite Chabacano Philippine Creole Spanish: Description and Typology(PDF) (PhD). University of California, Berkeley. Archived fromthe original on January 14, 2021.The galleon activities also attracted a great number of Mexican men that arrived from the Mexican Pacific coast as ships' crewmembers (Grant 2009: 230). Mexicans were administrators, priests and soldiers (guachinangos or hombres de pueblo) (Bernal 1964: 188) many though, integrated into the peasant society, even becoming tulisanes "bandits" who in the late 18th century "infested" Cavite and led peasant revolts (Medina 2002: 66). Meanwhile, in the Spanish garrisons, Spanish was used among administrators and priests. Nonetheless, there is not enough historical information on the social role of these men. In fact some of the few references point to a quick integration into the local society: "los hombres del pueblo, los soldados y marinos, anónimos, olvidados, absorbidos en su totalidad por la población Filipina." (Bernal 1964: 188). In addition to the Manila-Acapulco galleon, a complex commercial maritime system circulated European and Asian commodities including slaves. During the 17th century, Portuguese vessels traded with the ports of Manila and Cavite, even after the prohibition of 1644 (Seijas 2008: 21). Crucially, the commercial activities included the smuggling and trade of slaves: "from the Moluccas, and Malacca, and India... with the monsoon winds" carrying "clove spice, cinnamon, and pepper and black slaves, and Kafir [slaves]" (Antonio de Morga cf Seijas 2008: 21)." Though there is no data on the numbers of slaves in Cavite, the numbers in Manila suggest a significant fraction of the population had been brought in as slaves by the Portuguese vessels. By 1621, slaves in Manila numbered 1,970 out of a population of 6,110. This influx of slaves continued until late in the 17th century; according to contemporary cargo records in 1690, 200 slaves departed from Malacca to Manila (Seijas 2008: 21). Different ethnicities were favored for different labor; Africans were brought to work on the agricultural production, and skilled slaves from India served as caulkers and carpenters.
^"Jesuits In The Philippines (1581-1768)" Page 132 "In 1591 there arrived in Manila a secular priest named Juan Fernandez de Leon. He had led a hermit's life in Mexico and planned to continue it in the Philippines. For this purpose he built himself a retreat near a wayside shrine just outside the city walls which was dedicated to Our Lady of Guidance, Nuestra Sehora de Guia. His hermitage later gave its name to the entire district, which is called Ermita to this day."
^John. M. Lipski, with P. Mühlhaüsler and F. Duthin (1996)."Spanish in the Pacific"(PDF). In Stephen Adolphe Wurm & Peter Mühlhäusler (ed.).Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas: Texts, Volume 2. Walter de Gruyter. p. 276.ISBN9783110134179.
^Talitha Espiritu Passionate Revolutions: The Media and the Rise and Fall of the Marcos Regime Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2017.
^abcDaroy, Petronilo Bn. (1988). "On the Eve of Dictatorship and Revolution". In Javate -de Dios, Aurora; Daroy, Petronilo Bn.; Kalaw-Tirol, Lorna (eds.).Dictatorship and revolution : roots of people's power (1st ed.). Metro Manila: Conspectus.ISBN978-9919108014.OCLC19609244.
^Pimentel, Benjamin (2006).U.G. an underground tale: the journey of Edgar Jopson and the first quarter storm generation. Pasig: Anvil Publishing, Inc.ISBN9712715906.OCLC81146038.
^Rocamora, Rick (2023).Dark Memories of Torture, Incarceration, Disappearance, and Death under Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr.'s Martial Law. Quezon City.ISBN979-8-218-96751-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Sicat, Gerardo P.; Virata, Cesar Enrique Aguinaldo (2014).Cesar Virata: life and times ; through four decades of Philippine economic history. Diliman, Quezon City: The Univ. of the Philippines Press.ISBN978-971-542-741-8.
^Schock, Kurt (1999). "People Power and Political Opportunities: Social Movement Mobilization and Outcomes in the Philippines and Burma".Social Problems.46 (3):355–375.doi:10.2307/3097105.ISSN0037-7791.JSTOR3097105.
^abPaul Sagmayao, Mercado; Tatad, Francisco S. (1986),People Power: The Philippine Revolution of 1986: An Eyewitness History, Manila,Philippines: The James B. Reuter, S.J., Foundation,OCLC16874890
^Mundo, Sheryl (December 1, 2009)."It's Atienza vs. Lim Part 2 in Manila".ABS-CBN News. Manila. Archived fromthe original on December 3, 2009. RetrievedMarch 3, 2014.Environment Secretary Jose "Lito" Atienza will get to tangle again with incumbent Manila Alfredo Lim in the coming 2010 elections.
^Cappelen, John; Jensen, Jens."Filippinerne – Manila, Luzon"(PDF).Climate Data for Selected Stations (1931–1960) (in Danish). Danish Meteorological Institute. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on April 27, 2013. RetrievedDecember 17, 2019.
^Rimando, Rolly; Rolly E. Rimando; Peter L.K. Knuepfer (February 10, 2004). "Neotectonics of the Marikina Valley fault system (MVFS) and tectonic framework of structures in northern and central Luzon, Philippines".Tectonophysics.415 (1–4):17–38.Bibcode:2006Tectp.415...17R.doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2005.11.009.
^Barrows, David (2014)."A History of the Philippines".Guttenburg Free Online E-books.1: 229.Reforms under General Arandía.—The demoralization and misery with which Obando's rule closed were relieved somewhat by the capable government of Arandía, who succeeded him. Arandía was one of the few men of talent, energy, and integrity who stood at the head of affairs in these islands during two centuries. He reformed the greatly disorganized military force, establishing what was known as the "Regiment of the King,"made up very largely of Mexican soldiers. He also formed a corps of artillerists composed of Filipinos. These were regular troops, who received from Arandía sufficient pay to enable them to live decently and like an army.
^Go, Matthew C. (January 15, 2018)."An Admixture Approach to Trihybrid Ancestry Variation in the Philippines with Implications for Forensic Anthropology".Human Biology.232 (3): 178.doi:10.13110/humanbiology.90.3.01.PMID33947174. RetrievedSeptember 11, 2020.Filipinos appear considerably admixed with respect to the other Asian population samples, carrying on average less Asian ancestry (71%) than our Korean (99%), Japanese (96%), Thai (93%), and Vietnamese (84%) reference samples. We also revealed substructure in our Filipino sample, showing that the patterns of ancestry vary within the Philippines—that is, between the four differently sourced Filipino samples. Mean estimates of Asian (76%) and European (7%) ancestry are greatest for the cemetery sample of forensic significance from Manila.
^abcGo MC, Jones AR, Algee-Hewitt B, Dudzik B, Hughes C (2019)."Classification Trends among Contemporary Filipino Crania Using Fordisc 3.1".Human Biology.2 (4). University of Florida Press:293–303.doi:10.5744/fa.2019.1005.S2CID159266278. RetrievedSeptember 13, 2020.[Page 1] ABSTRACT: Filipinos represent a significant contemporary demographic group globally, yet they are underrepresented in the forensic anthropological literature. Given the complex population history of the Philippines, it is important to ensure that traditional methods for assessing the biological profile are appropriate when applied to these peoples. Here we analyze the classification trends of a modern Filipino sample (n = 110) when using the Fordisc 3.1 (FD3) software. We hypothesize that Filipinos represent an admixed population drawn largely from Asian and marginally from European parental gene pools, such that FD3 will classify these individuals morphometrically into reference samples that reflect a range of European admixture, in quantities from small to large. Our results show the greatest classification into Asian reference groups (72.7%), followed by Hispanic (12.7%), Indigenous American (7.3%), African (4.5%), and European (2.7%) groups included in FD3. This general pattern did not change between males and females. Moreover, replacing the raw craniometric values with their shape variables did not significantly alter the trends already observed. These classification trends for Filipino crania provide useful information for casework interpretation in forensic laboratory practice. Our findings can help biological anthropologists to better understand the evolutionary, population historical, and statistical reasons for FD3-generated classifications. The results of our study indicate that ancestry estimation in forensic anthropology would benefit from population-focused research that gives consideration to histories of colonialism and periods of admixture.
^Steinberg, David Joel (2018). "Chapter – 3 A SINGULAR AND A PLURAL FOLK".THE PHILIPPINES A Singular and a Plural Place. Routledge. p. 47.doi:10.4324/9780429494383.ISBN978-0-8133-3755-5.The cultural identity of the mestizos was challenged as they became increasingly aware that they were true members of neither the Indio nor the Chinese community. Increasingly powerful but adrift, they linked with the Spanish mestizos, who were also being challenged because after the Latin American revolutions broke the Spanish Empire, many of the settlers from the New World, Caucasian Creoles born in Mexico or Peru, became suspect in the eyes of the Iberian Spanish. The Spanish Empire had lost its universality.
^Mawis, Arch Vittoria Lou (February 10, 2018)."The house that Tsinoys built".Philippine Daily Inquirer. Archived fromthe original on July 9, 2021. RetrievedAugust 18, 2022.
^Luci-Atienza, Charissa; Cahiles-Magkilat, Bernie (January 20, 2019)."Feast of Sto. Niño de Tondo".Manila Bulletin. Archived fromthe original on August 12, 2022. RetrievedAugust 12, 2022.
^Pante, Michael D. (2019).A Capital City at the Margins: Quezon City and Urbanization in the Twentieth-century Philippines. Kyoto CSEAS series on Philippine studies / Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University. Ateneo de Manila University Press, Kyōto Daigaku. Quezon City, Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press in association with Kyoto University Press, Kyoto, Japan. pp. 159–160.ISBN978-971-550-923-7.
^Valderrama, Helena Agnes S.; Bautista, Carlos C."Efficiency Analysis of Electric Cooperatives in the Philippines".Philippine Management Review 2011.19. Diliman, Quezon City 1101, Philippines: University of the Philippines, College of Business Administration: 2. Archived fromthe original on August 12, 2022. RetrievedAugust 12, 2022.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
^Bolido, Linda (December 29, 2008)."On hallowed ground".Philippine Daily Inquirer.Archived from the original on September 20, 2009. RetrievedSeptember 8, 2022.
^"About UP Manila". University of the Philippines Manila. Archived fromthe original on February 6, 2013. RetrievedFebruary 5, 2013.
^"PUP: Profile". Polytechnic University of the Philippines. March 30, 2011. Archived fromthe original on June 21, 2014. RetrievedMarch 4, 2014.
^Cabayan, Itchie G. (April 7, 2010)."Good education a right, not privilege – Lim". City Government of Manila. Archived fromthe original on February 23, 2017. RetrievedApril 24, 2010.NO one should be deprived of a sound education for being poor
^ab"Overview of China-Philippines Bilateral Relations: III. Exchanges and Cooperation in the Fields of Culture, Education, Science and the Military, etc". Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the Republic of the Philippines. March 5, 2009. RetrievedFebruary 4, 2015.There are 24 pairs of sister-cities or sister-provinces between China and the Philippines, namely: Hangzhou and Baguio City, Guangzhou and Manila City, Shanghai and Metro Manila, Xiamen and Cebu City, Shenyang and Quezon City, Fushun and Lipa City, Hainan and Cebu Province, Sanya and Lapu-Lapu City, Shishi and Naya City, Shandong and Ilocos Norte Province, Zibo and Mandaue City, Anhui and Nueva Ecija Province, Hubei and Leyte Province, Liuzhou and Muntinlupa City, Hezhou and San Fernando City, Harbin and Cagayan de Oro City, Laibin and Laoag City, Beijing and Manila City, Jiangxi and Bohol Province, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Davao City, Lanzhou and Albay Province, Beihai and Puerto Princessa City, Fujian Province and Laguna Province, Wuxi and Puerto Princessa City.
Hancock, Rose (April 2000). "April Was a Cruel Month for the Greatest Manila Mayor Ever Had".1898:The Shaping of Philippine History. 35. Vol. II. Manila: Asia Pacific Communications Network, Inc. pp. 15–20.
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