Media Category: Philippines 2025

A bastion on the defensive walls at Fort Santiago where a statue of a Filipino soldier is posted. A bastion is a protruding, angular, defensive structure designed to provide flanking fire and a clear line of sight for artillery to defend the main curtain walls against invaders like this one to protect at the Pasig River entrance. (Sept. 12, 2025)

The murallas, or walls of Intramuros in Manila at Fort Santiago with views of the are massive, thick stone fortifications built by the Spanish in the late 16th century to protect the city’s center of power from invaders. (Sept. 12, 2025)

The Pasig River with views of Chinatown and the Binondo-Intramuros Bridge, a modern white steel bowstring arch bridge with four lanes that connects Chinatown to Intramuros. While once a clear, bustling waterway, the Pasig River has faced significant pollution due to waste dumping and is now the subject of ongoing government and international efforts to rehabilitate it for ecological and public health benefits. (Sept. 12, 2025)

Here we are at the entrance into Fort Santiago peering down the Plaza Moriones, a public square within the historic Fort Santiago in Manila’s Intramuros. At the end of the square is the fort’s reconstructed main gate. (Sept. 12, 2025)

Just a short distance away from Fort Santiago, we walked to the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros. The Cathedral’s history is one of repeated destruction and reconstruction, having been built and rebuilt at least eight times since its founding in 1571 as a parish church. Each iteration has faced destruction from fires, earthquakes, and war, most significantly during the World War II, leading to the current, eighth structure completed in 1958. The facade is a Neo-Romanesque structure adorned with statues of saints sculpted from Roman travertine stone and featuring artistic bronze panels on its main portal that depict historical episodes and Marian invocations. (Sept. 12, 2025)

A bronze life-sized polychromed statue of the Immaculate Conception located above the high altar with beautiful stained glass inside the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros. (Sept. 12, 2025)