Manila’s heritage buildings: Which candidate can save, protect the old city?

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Manila is rich in history but much of that history is decaying before our eyes.

In Binondo, along San Fernando Street, an old wooden structure sits in decay. This building was referenced in Jose Rizal’s novel El Filibusterismo as a panciteria. Its wooden part is warped. Some windows are missing. Campaign posters blanket its facade as tangled electrical wires crisscross the structure that sits sandwiched between modern white buildings.

Just a few blocks away, at the corner of Lavezares and Elcano Streets, another old house stands with a rare tisa (clay tile) roof. 

Wild plants have taken root on the rooftop, and during certain seasons, they even bloom with flowers. Only a few of its original sliding windows remain. A couple of shops are leasing the ground floor.

OLD BUILDING. Campaign banners hang on the windows of an old, weathered building in Manila,

Its neighbors tower over it: a 23-story condominium and a newer mid-rise commerical and residential building.

Not far, tucked in a narrow alley along Caballeros Street in San Nicolas, another bahay na bato is being demolished. Now roofless and skeletal, its darkened beams sag from decades of neglect. The grills on the ground floor have started to rust.

DEMOLITION. The old building is being torn down to make way for new developments.

Further down the same street, an Art Deco building is also falling apart. When Rappler visited, a shirtless man was urinating in front of the abandoned structure. Graffiti covered a portion of its wall, as the ground was littered with trash. Motorcycles parked in front were oblivious to the glaring “No Parking” signs.

VANDALIZED HERITAGE. A shirtless man relieves himself outside a dilapidated heritage building

Stephen Pamorada, a heritage advocate and founder of The Heritage Collective, said San Nicolas is known as the center of “trade and revolution.” It was once a bustling hub of commerce, made accessible by its esteros or waterways that connect to Manila Bay.

It was also home to revolution and memory. General Antonio Luna and Macario Sakay were born in the same neighborhood. Teodora Alonso, Rizal’s mother, once kept her son’s bones in a house nearby. On Recto Avenue, a historical marker now stands where the Katipunan was founded. The original house was long gone.

Pamorada grew up in the neighborhood of San Nicolas. Over the years, he has watched one old building disappear one after another, only to be replaced by vertical warehouses.

Across Manila, historic structures are either neglected, demolished, or swallowed by unchecked development.

While national agencies like the National Historical Commission of the Philippines and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts have a mandate to protect cultural properties, local officials play an equally crucial role in safeguarding old structures and houses in their own backyard.

Zoning

The city council can declare certain areas as heritage zones to preserve their cultural, historical, or architectural significance.

One such declared heritage zone in Manila is the neighborhood of Sta. Ana, established through an ordinance passed in 2011. However, the council failed to craft the implementing rules and regulations needed to enforce protections in the area.

This oversight became evident in 2023 when residents of Sta. Ana raised alarm over the construction of a condominium complex in the neighborhood. They argued that the development should not have been allowed, as it lies within the buffer zone of the heritage site. 

Residents also expressed concern that the vibrations from the construction were damaging the centuries-old ceiling artwork of the Sta. Ana Church.

The developer, however, maintained that all necessary permits had been secured and the damage in the painting was not caused by their construction.

Demolition permits

Apart from zoning, demolition permits for old structures are also issued at city hall. Without protective policies in place, it becomes easy for developers to tear down historic buildings.

According to Pamorada, the city mayor could issue an executive order directing the tourism, assessor, and planning offices to coordinate and consider a structure’s historical or cultural value when processing permits.

Tax breaks 

Preservation is costly. Heritage Conservation Society President Gio Abecede and Pamorada said the local city government can encourage owners of old buildings to preserve them by giving them tax breaks.

In 2013, then-councilor Yul Servo-Nieto pushed for an ordinance to provide real property tax and special education fund tax exemptions to historic structures, including the land on which they stand. Nieto is an incumbent vice mayor seeking reelection. The ordinance was signed by former Manila mayor Joseph Estrada. 

The owners of the First United Building, Lorraine and Robert Sylianteng, were among those who initially benefited from a tax holiday granted by the City of Manila. They only learned about the incentive through Pamorada in 2017 and were able to avail of the tax break from 2018 to 2020.

The Syliantengs said the tax relief helped them restore and maintain the historic building. Part of the savings also went to supporting cultural and arts activities in Escolta.

However, the tax break was abruptly discontinued after city hall determined that the building was being used for commercial purposes, the Syliantengs told Rappler.

“As we recognized the City of Manila Ordinance No. 8385, as such is not applicable in your case since the actual use of your property is being utilized for commerical purposes as per ocular inspection conducted by the assigned property appraiser and is not actually, directly and exclusively used for tax exemption purposes provided by the said law,” said an October 2, 2020 letter of Manila’s Department of Assessment addressed to the First United Building. It was signed by Joselito Agapito of the city legal division and officer-in-charge city assessor Marlon Lacson.

OLD BUILDING. The First United Building stands along historic Escolta Street in Manila

Despite the financial challenges, the Syliantengs said they remain committed to preservation. They could easily sell the property, demolish the old building, and put up a high-rise, but they have chosen not to.

“We keep preserving this building so that future generations of Filipinos can see what American period architecture looked like and so they can imagine what life was like back then,” Lorraine said.

Heritage mapping 

Manila lacks an updated and comprehensive heritage inventory, according to Pamorada. Without this, many structures fall through the cracks, unprotected simply because no one has officially recognized their value.

Under the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009, structures over 50 years old can qualify as “Important Cultural Properties.” The purpose of this law is to protect the buildings “against exportation, modification, or demolition.”

“There’s the urgency to really identify them and of course, in the longer run, preserve them,” Pamorada said. 

To address this gap, Pamorada and his group, Manileños for Heritage, have taken matters into their own hands. With the help of volunteers, they are conducting grassroots heritage mapping efforts across the city. They are also active in restoring historical markers.

Making Manila walkable

Part of making people care is making heritage more accessible, said tour guide and advocate Abecede.

That begins with walkability, reviving plazas as inviting public spaces for connection and rest.

“If someone’s actually able to fix the plazas and make it what plazas are meant to be, like places where people can come down and have a leisurely time, if they start to use these public spaces, and their relationship to a heritage site next to it, people will start to appreciate them more,” Abecede said. 

But today, uncollected garbage, a pervasive putrid smell, and buildings in disrepair instead assault the senses.

Torre de Manila’s tale 

The infamous Torre de Manila — the high-rise dubbed a “photobomber” of the Rizal Monument — shows just how fragile Manila’s heritage is.

The city council passed Ordinance No. 8310 in 2013, aiming to regulate construction that would ruin historical sites in the city. This ordinance was intended to prevent developments like Torre de Manila from obstructing the sightline of national monuments.

However, then-Mayor Alfredo Lim vetoed this ordinance, arguing that it was beyond the legal power of the city council. 

‘Heritage vote’

In a city where poverty, health services, and garbage dominate the agenda, heritage often falls by the wayside.

In campaign sorties covered by Rappler, heritage hasn’t made it into the candidates’ speeches.

At Rappler’s election forum in January 2025, vice mayoral candidate Pablo “Chikee” Ocampo proposed demolishing 50-year-old buildings and converting their lots into parking spaces. Nothing about preservation. Reelectionist congressman Joel Chua, on the other hand, is advocating for an ordinance to designate Quiapo a heritage zone.

This election, politicians’ posters cling to the crumbling walls of Manila’s aging buildings. But who among them will rise to protect our heritage? – Rappler.com