One Tama Blog

The weather was kind, the participants eager, and the Walled City was waiting to be discovered. With Ivan ManDy of Old Manila Walks leading, 40 people walked the streets of Intramuros much like how the myriad of colonizers, traders, and generations of Filipinos must have over the past 400 years or so.

The tour begins in front of the Manila Cathedral, Plaza Roma, Intramuros

It was One Tama’s Action Day: rediscovering this city we call home. It fittingly began at the Plaza Mayor of our Nation’s first capital. From where we stood, we gained insight on what influences drove our first Spanish colonizers. To the north was the center of military might. To the east and west were the centers of regional and national politics. And to the south, the formidable structure of Manila’s oldest Catholic Church.

From there, more than 400 years of history passed in a matter of 3 hours and a few kilometers walk. Ivan shared his extensive knowledge of Philippine history from Magellan’s landing, to Imelda Marcos’s ambitious infrastructure projects. It was a history lesson, in every sense of the term, and more. Because being there in Intramuros, it was richer than learning about history—it was experiencing history.

We, his willing audience, in turn realized how far and how long we’ve come as a people. That we bear the confluence of Asian, European, and South American cultures evolved through the highs and lows of human experience. That we’ve weathered being conquered, and re-conquered, and bombed to a stump—and that we have risen to live on.

The tour ended on the Intramuros wall, looking from inside-out. Just as fitting as where the tour began, I felt this place, too, was an apt end. Because from where we stood and with what we’ve learnt, I felt an inner stir that hinted of the influences that should drive our nation some 438 years after it was establsihed.

It was me. And the people with me.

It was the 40 who claim their roots in this city; in this country. Along with the other 92 million Filipinos acting in their individual capacity to make our country right. Not tomorrow, but today. One right action at a time, shared with a community in pursuit of a common desire for a better home.

History tells us, after all, that we owe it to our ancestors who fought for our freedom. History also tells us, even more importantly, that we owe it to our selves and to posterity. Because we are who we are. And this, this group of islands called the Philippines, is home no matter what.

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On July 19, 2009, 40 strangers came together to take a walking tour of Intramuros. A little more than 3 hours after, 40 people parted ways as friends—having rekindled, even if just a little bit, their common love and fascination of this place we call home.