• civilians took refuge in St. La Salle Hall in Manila during World War II, believing that its walls would protect them from anything but a direct hit?
• after the Mendiola massacre on January 22, 1987, the Filipino Government banned all public demonstrations on Mendiola Street in Manila?
• despite being running mates in Manila's upcoming local elections, Alfredo Lim and Isko Moreno support different candidates in the presidential election?
• the Arch of the Centuries of the University of Santo Tomas at Manila was disassembled from the University's original campus at Intramuros, carried piece-by-piece, and was re-erected at the current campus at Sampaloc?
• while Isko Moreno was running for vice mayor in Manila in 2007, posters were distributed of him wearing only swimming briefs?
• Typhoon Patsy (1970) was the deadliest tropical cyclone to strike Manila since the establishment of the Philippine Weather Bureau in 1865?
• Jeronima de la Asuncion (pictured) was the foundress of the first Catholic monastery in Manila and the Far East?
• Nick Joaquin's play, A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, was described in The New York Times as an "engaging, well plotted metaphor for the passing of Old Manila"?
• Ancient Tondo became so prosperous that the Kingdom of Brunei had to attack it and set up a rival settlement to keep it in check?
• Arsenio Lacson was the first person to be elected to three terms as mayor of Manila?
• España Boulevard, the main street of Sampaloc, Manila, is notorious for its waist-deep floods during the Philippine typhoon season?
• Filipino indie rock band Taken by Cars had two singles that reached the top of Manila's local radio charts before getting signed in a major record label?

Facts on topics related to Manila

Metro Manila

• deaths caused by falling billboards in Metro Manila during Typhoon Xangsane (Milenyo) prompted a renewed push by Philippine legislators for a ban on billboard advertising?

Philippines

• 1,200 journalists, human rights advocates, and leftist activists have been killed in the Philippines as a result of Gloria Arroyo's counter-insurgency program "Oplan Bantay Laya"?
• 40,000 people were estimated to make a living from seaweed farming in the Philippines in 1997?
• 1970's Super Typhoon Joan, the largest storm of the season in size, is the strongest typhoon ever to hit the Philippines?
• 1985's only super typhoon, Super Typhoon Dot, is the sixth-most intense tropical cyclone in terms of wind speed to affect Bicol Region, Philippines between 1947 and 2004?
• footballer Edward King was honored for heroism in the Philippines and tactical skill in France and later became Commandant of the Army Command and General Staff College?
• Austin Coates's Rizal: Philippine Nationalist and Martyr is the second biography of Filipino national hero José Rizal authored by a non-Filipino?
• General Douglas MacArthur's staff threatened United States Army Lieutenant Colonel Charles S. Lawrence with court martial if he confiscated nearly 2,000 cases of food from Japanese-run firms in the Philippines, and that the stores were destroyed during the Battle of Bataan in early 1942?
• Lualhati Bautista’s Tagalog novel, Bata, Bata… Pa’no Ka Ginawa? became a film starring Vilma Santos, an actress turned first female governor of Batangas of the Philippines?
• Meralco's John F. Cotton Corporate Wellness Center was the first implementation of a corporate wellness program in the Philippines?
• Filipino basketball player Gec Chia's walk-off buzzer beater in the 2002 UAAP semifinals brought his coach Joel Banal to his knees, and he later described the shot as "a miracle"?

Cebu City

• Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, the grandson of the late Philippine President Sergio Osmeña, was a Vice President of SEROS, Inc and Apex Realty and Developers in California?
• the extensive use of social networking in the Philippines allowed the Cebu City police to identify two murder suspects by checking into their Friendster profiles?