New book surveys Metro Manila’s architectural landmarks

‘Architectural Guide Manila’ features the built heritage of the Philippines’ capital region with writings by architects and heritage advocates

Bianca Weeko Martin’s Architectural Guide Manila presents in style the built heritage of Metro Manila spanning the Spanish, American, and the contemporary periods. It is a handy book with short but informative essays accompanied by eye-catching images of buildings featured.

In her introduction, the Canada-based Filipino-Indonesian author relates how she fell in love with the country’s history and architecture and mentions her ancestral home in Baliwag, Bulacan, a still extant two-story house completed in 1934.

The recently launched book ‘Architectural Guide Manila.’

Published by the Berlin-based DOM Publishers, the book was launched on 11 May at the Manila Metropolitan Theater with a panel discussion featuring the author; architect Gerard Lico who contributed an article on brutalism and post-colonial architecture; architect and curator Peter Cachola Schmal; and Patrick Kasingsing of Brutalist Pilipinas.

They discussed heritage conservation projects and efforts in Manila as well as its built environment. Following the launch was a tour of Manila facilitated by the group Renacimiento Manila.

Apart from Lico’s essay, representative buildings from the Spanish to the American periods are discussed starting off with Intramuros including the Manila Cathedral and Fort Santiago, the historic Bahay Nakpil-Bautista, Paco Train Station, Luneta Hotel, the National Museum complex, and the Far Eastern University campus. Also featured are churches and chapels, old and new and structures of tropical modernism such as the Government Service Insurance System Complex in Pasay City and the Pacific Star Building in Makati City.

While many of the featured building are already written about in many other publications, the book’s strength lies on the feature on Metro Manila’s modernist and post-modernist structures. These structures are located in the cities of Pasay, Makati and Taguig.

Aside from Lico, the book’s other contributors include Singaporean scholar Joshua Tan, Aya Maceda of New York’s Parsons School of Design, Edson Cabalfin of Tulane University in Louisiana, Neferti Tadiar of Barnard College in New York, and Kasingsing.

Offering a fresh take on the architectural milieu of Metro Manila, the book is a perfect guide for a weekend stroll or an afternoon coffee in the Philippines’ capital region.

Source: Daily Tribune

Climate Change Is Putting Swelling Cities at Risk

Weather events exacerbated by climate change will threaten many places in the coming years, and many of these locations are also projected to gain a lot of new inhabitants.

In the world’s largest cities, governments will have to do more to protect the millions of people in danger from a hot planet.

Growing Exposure

Countries with surging urban populations are also the most vulnerable to climate change.

Sources: Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative, UN-Habitat

Note: Color indicates climate vulnerability (red = highest). Countries without ND-GAIN index scores or negative projected urban population growth not shown

• Drought has edged Mexico City close to “Day Zero,” when it would run out of water.

• Phoenix has a director of heat response and mitigation whose department runs, among other things, a tree-planting program to provide shade.

• Cairo’s $390 million Abu Rawash wastewater treatment plant is one of the world’s largest. Almost 60% of city adaptation funding goes to water and waste.

• Jakarta is the fastest-sinking megacity in the world. If managers don’t stop groundwater withdrawals, the subsidence, coupled with sea level rise, will spell doom.

• About 90% of domestic migrants to Niamey, the capital of Niger, cited climate change as their reason for moving in a 2021 United Nations survey.

• India and Bangladesh are home to three of the world’s 10 most populous cities. Yet they receive only 6% of all urban financing.

• Ten Philippine cities have a disaster insurance pool to help them cope with increasingly severe typhoons.

Source: Bloomberg

How does the law define money laundering?

Section 4 of Republic Act (RA) 10365, otherwise known as the "Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001", defines money laundering offenses as follows:

"SEC. 4. Money Laundering Offense. – Money laundering is committed by any person who, knowing that any monetary instrument or property represents, involves, or relates to the proceeds of any unlawful activity:

"(a) transacts said monetary instrument or property;

"(b) converts, transfers, disposes of, moves, acquires, possesses or uses said monetary instrument or property;

"(c) conceals or disguises the true nature, source, location, disposition, movement or ownership of or rights with respect to said monetary instrument or property;

"(d) attempts or conspires to commit money laundering offenses referred to in paragraphs (a), (b) or (c);

"(e) aids, abets, assists in or counsels the commission of the money laundering offenses referred to in paragraphs (a), (b) or (c) above; and

"(f) performs or fails to perform any act as a result of which he facilitates the offense of money laundering referred to in paragraphs (a), (b) or (c) above.

"Money laundering is also committed by any covered person who, knowing that a covered or suspicious transaction is required under this Act to be reported to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), fails to do so."

Pertinent to the foregoing, the separate opinion of Associate Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier in the recent case of Lingad vs. People (GR 224945, Oct. 11, 2022), an En banc decision of the Supreme Court, is illuminating regarding the permutation of the definition of money laundering, thus:

"The definition in the amended Section 4 of RA 10365 is the prevailing definition of Money Laundering to date.

"Note the permutations of the definition of money laundering in Section 4:

"any monetary instrument or property represents, involves, or relates to the proceeds of any unlawful activity

"(a) transacts said monetary instrument or property;

"(b) converts, transfers, disposes of, moves, acquires, possesses or uses said monetary instrument or property;

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"(c) conceals or disguises the true nature, source, location, disposition, movement or ownership of or rights with respect to said monetary instrument or property;"

Applying the foregoing, the prevailing definition of money laundering is the act of transacting a monetary instrument or property; or the conversion, transfer, disposal of, moving, acquiring, possessing or use of said monetary instrument, or property; or the concealment or disguise of the true nature, source, location, disposition, movement, or ownership of or rights with respect to said monetary instrument or property — by any person who, knowing that any monetary instrument or property represents, involves, or relates to the proceeds of any unlawful activity.

In addition, money laundering is also defined as the failure to report to the Anti-Money Laundering Council of any covered person who, knowing that a covered or suspicious transaction is required under the anti-money laundering Act to be reported.

Source: Manila Times