53 Fun Facts About Manila

On which island of the Philippines does Manila stand?

Luzon's Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991 and sent so much sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere that global temperatures fell by about half a degree Celsius until 1993.

Which river flows through the middle of Manila, dividing it north and south?

A 2003 report called it one of the most polluted rivers in the world.

Which city is the most populous in the Philippines, with more people than the capital, Manila?

Quezon City became the University of the Philippines' home in 1949, after the university outgrew its cramped campus in Manila and moved to open land in Diliman.

Which Spanish conquistador founded Spanish Manila in 1571?

Miguel López de Legazpi did not capture Maynila himself: his field commander Martín de Goiti took it by force in 1570, a year before Legazpi arrived to set up the city.

Which rajah ruled Maynila alongside his uncle when Spanish forces attacked it in 1570?

Rajah Sulayman made peace with the Spanish in 1571, and they built their colonial city of Manila on the very site of his fortified settlement.

Which material makes up the frame and walls of Manila's San Sebastian Basilica, prefabricated in Belgium?

Steel: its columns, walls and ceiling were painted to look like marble, but rust now threatens the metal.

Which Filipino painter's giant canvas Spoliarium greets visitors to Manila's National Museum of Fine Arts?

Juan Luna: after it won gold in Madrid in 1884, José Rizal hailed its dead gladiators as a symbol of Filipino life in open struggle with injustice.

With which Mexican port did the Manila galleons trade from 1565 to 1815?

Acapulco: from there, Asian cargo went overland by pack animals to Veracruz and on by ship to Spain.

Which Augustinian friar-navigator pioneered the eastward return route to Mexico in 1565?

Andrés de Urdaneta: piloting the San Pedro, he opened the route that Manila galleons sailed for the next 250 years.

Which Cold War alliance was created by the treaty signed in Manila in September 1954?

SEATO: meant to stop communism spreading in Southeast Asia, it lost its purpose when the Vietnam War ended and disbanded in 1977.

Which European power seized Manila in 1762, during the Seven Years' War?

Great Britain: its fleet sailed from British India with Indian sepoys aboard, but the Treaty of Paris that ended the war returned the city to Spain.

Which Manila district is regarded as the world's oldest Chinatown?

Binondo: in 1594 the Spanish granted Catholic Chinese settlers this land tax-free, with limited rights to govern themselves.

Which society, founded in Manila in 1892, began the Philippine Revolution against Spain in 1896?

Katipunan: its founders met in secret after learning Spain would deport Rizal, agreeing that only armed struggle could free the country.

Which 1571 citadel in the walled city held the national hero before his execution?

Fort Santiago: confined there on the eve of his execution, José Rizal wrote his farewell poem, 'Mi último adiós'.

Which Manila church, completed in 1607, is the country's oldest stone church?

San Agustin: when fighting in 1945 levelled the walled city around it, this was the only church there left standing.

To which mountain city did American officials move the government from Manila each summer?

Baguio: sitting about 1,500 metres up among pine-clad hills, its cool climate gave officials relief from the lowland heat of Manila.

Which Metro Manila avenue gave its name to the 1986 uprising that ended a dictatorship?

EDSA: when government tanks advanced, praying nuns and unarmed crowds blocked them, and the troops stopped and retreated.

Which war broke out when fighting erupted in Manila on February 4, 1899?

Philippine-American War: Filipino forces under Emilio Aguinaldo wanted independence, not a change of colonial rulers.

Which American commodore destroyed the Spanish squadron in Manila Bay on May 1, 1898?

George Dewey: he withdrew mid-battle and gave his crews breakfast, then re-engaged and finished off the Spanish squadron.

Which American city planner drew up the 1905 plan to remake Manila?

He was invited by Governor-General William Howard Taft.

What was Manila declared early in World War II, before Japanese troops occupied it in 1942?

An open city: Manila suffered little damage when Japanese troops marched in, but the 1945 fight to retake it levelled the city.

Roughly how many Filipino civilians died during the month-long 1945 Battle of Manila?

100,000: many were massacred by Japanese troops, while others died as American and Japanese artillery pounded the city.

Which peninsula across Manila Bay did American and Filipino troops defend until April 1942?

Bataan: when more than 70,000 of its starving defenders surrendered, Japanese troops forced them on the Bataan Death March to prison camps.

Who became Manila's first elected mayor, taking office in 1952?

Arsenio Lacson: he led the city for a decade and died suddenly in 1962, amid talk that he would run for president.

What is Manila's pre-war nickname?

Pearl of the Orient: the name fitted the prewar city, much of which the 1945 battle to retake it left in ruins.

Which regional development lender has its headquarters in Metro Manila?

Asian Development Bank: though it lends only in Asia and the Pacific, the United States has put in as much capital as Japan, one of its biggest shareholders.

What is the official residence of the president of the Philippines?

It stands in the San Miguel district and is often used as a metonym for the government.

Which American general made his prewar home in the Manila Hotel's penthouse?

Douglas MacArthur: his penthouse was gutted by fire when American troops fought the Japanese for the hotel in 1945.

Manila's airport is named after which politician assassinated on its tarmac in 1983?

Ninoy Aquino: his killing galvanized the opposition behind his widow, Corazon, who became president in 1986.

Which Manila garbage dump, home to thousands of scavengers, was closed in the 1990s and replaced by public housing?

Smokey Mountain: once the dump was gone, many former residents lost their main income, scavenging.

Whose corner stopped the Thrilla in Manila after the 14th round?

Joe Frazier's: trainer Eddie Futch refused to send his nearly blind fighter out for the 15th round, handing Ali a 2-1 series win.

'Manila hemp' is fibre from which kind of plant?

A banana species: its fibre is so strong and resists salt water so well that it became a favourite for ships' ropes.

Which Manila festival on January 9 draws millions to follow a statue of Christ?

Feast of the Black Nazarene: in 2024 Quiapo Church dropped 'Black' from its shrine's official name, and devotees are now asked to call the image Jesus Nazareno.

Which Manila institution, founded in 1611, holds Asia's oldest extant university charter?

Santo Tomas: during the Japanese occupation its campus held thousands of Allied civilians until American cavalry troops freed them in February 1945.

Manila's jeepney takes its name from 'jeep' blended with which older word for a hired ride?

Jitney: the word for a cheap shared bus was joined to 'jeep' after World War II, when Filipinos turned surplus US Army jeeps into public vehicles.

What is the horse-drawn carriage that carries tourists around Manila's walled city called?

Kalesa: a right turn was called mano, for the driver's rein hand, and a left silla, for the seat where his other hand rested.

What did officials pour along Manila Bay's shore in 2020 to give it white sand?

Crushed dolomite: scientists warned that storm surges and typhoons would wash the thin layer of powdered rock away.

Metro Manila keeps each private car off major roads at rush hour on one weekday, set by what?

Its plate's last digit: a 2022 law exempts electric vehicles for eight years, one of the perks meant to win drivers over to them.

Which Manila condominium tower was nicknamed the 'national photobomber' for looming behind a national hero's monument?

Torre de Manila: in 2017 the Supreme Court voted 9-6 to let it stand, finding no law that barred building within a monument's sightline.

Which Tondo shopping district is called Manila's bargain 'shopping mecca'?

Divisoria: its Tutuban mall was built around the old railway terminal and kept the station's pre-war building standing.

Which beer brand was first brewed in Manila in 1890?

San Miguel: Spain's own San Miguel beer began in the 1950s, when the Manila brewer granted branding rights to a new Spanish company.

Which baseball legends hit the first home runs at Manila's main ballpark in 1934?

Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth: they played in Manila with a touring all-star team after a tour of Japan, and the feat is etched on the stadium's walls.

Which Manila mayor, first elected in 1992, was nicknamed 'Dirty Harry' for his tough anti-crime drives?

Alfredo Lim: a former policeman, he ran for president in 1998 and lost to Joseph Estrada.

Which Manila-born mayor, a former actor, defeated Joseph Estrada in 2019?

Isko Moreno: he grew up poor in Manila's slums and became an actor before winning a city council seat in 1998.

Which 2009 typhoon, known locally as Ondoy, caused one of Metro Manila's worst floods?

Ketsana: it dumped more than a month's worth of rain on Manila in about 12 hours, leaving whole neighbourhoods under water.

What is Arroceros Forest Park, a 2.2-hectare patch of woods in downtown Manila, often called?

The last lung of Manila: after many of its trees were cut in the 2000s for a city schools building, a 2020 ordinance made it a permanent forest park.

Pope Francis's final Mass in Manila in January 2015 drew a crowd of roughly what size?

6 million: many stood in the rain, a day after a storm forced the pope to cut short his visit to typhoon-hit Tacloban.

The August 1971 bombing that injured many Liberal Party politicians took place where?

Plaza Miranda: blaming communists for the attack, the president suspended habeas corpus, a step later seen as a prelude to martial law in 1972.

Which Manila landmark burned for more than 30 hours in May 2023?

Central Post Office: fire officials said the letters and parcels stored inside fed the flames.

Manila's Metropolitan Theater, opened in 1931, was built in which architectural style?

Art Deco: after the theater shut in 1996 amid a fight over who owned it, a national culture agency bought it in 2015 and reopened it in 2021.

Which flamenco accessory takes its Spanish name from Manila?

A shawl: Chinese workshops made many for export, and traders shipped them on from Manila to Spain and the rest of Europe.

Mali, the elephant who lived alone at Manila Zoo for decades, was a gift from which country?

Sri Lanka: for years activists urged moving her, the country's only elephant, to a sanctuary, but she stayed at the zoo until she died in 2023.

Which 1869 event facilitated direct trade and communication between Manila and Spain?

Growing wealth and education then fostered the ilustrado class whose liberal ideas fed the independence movement.