harrisonpark

AL-135 Highfill Album Image

from SDASM Archives

• Laurence Rovi Villegas said:

  DE LA SALLE COLLEGE, along Taft Avenue (now a University and vastly expanded) Concurrent during the Battle of Manila was the infamous but lesser-known "Rape of Manila". Among the numerous atrocities, the college was witness to the Japanese massacre of the De La Salle Brothers of 12 February 1945, where 21 members of the Imperial Japanese Army forced their way into the college-turned-refuge of 70, and massacred over 43 people (16 European De La Salle Brothers, 20 members of 6 different families, 3 college employees, & 4 unknowns) in the college chapel, which was then set on fire but did not burn down. The pale area behind the De La Salle (bounded by the Estero Maytubig) was the 10-hectare HARRISON PARK, the land of which was formerly owned by Vito Cruz (who later lent his name to a the diagonal street on the left in his honor; later renamed Pablo Ocampo Street for reasons unknown); the City of Manila ceded part of the Park (from the Estero Maytubig boundary until the oval) to become the future site of the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, designed by renowned Filipino architect Juan Arellano Nakpil, erected & inaugurated in 1934 just in time for that year's Far Eastern Championship Games. Hence, the dating is probably in the 1920's (possibly 1926 due to similar format of the other photos), but would not probably be before 1934. Below left is the ST. SCHOLASTICA'S COLLEGE, a female Catholic educational institution (whose buildings also suffered the ravages of the Battle of Manila in February 1945), where the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing currently teach their charges rebellion against the state: civil disobedience thru mandatory anti-government rallies & anti-government propaganda. All in direct violation of the teachings in Jeremiah 28:15-16 & Romans 13:1-7.