PLAZA MIRANDA 1949

At the heart of Quiapo is a public square known as Plaza Miranda named after Jose Sandino Miranda, who was Secretary of the Treasury between 1833 and 1854 during the Spanish colonial era. Inaugurated in its current form by Mayor Arsenio Lacson in 1961, it is the plaza which fronts the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene (Quiapo Church), one of the main churches of the City of Manila.

In the era of grand demonstrations and mass mobilizations, Plaza Miranda was described as “the crossroads of the nation, the forum of the land.” President Ramon Magsaysay, arguably the most popular of our postwar chief executives, famously recognized the square as a gauge of public opinion when he asked a proponent of a policy or project: “Can we defend this at Plaza Miranda?” Far removed from the closed, air-conditioned rooms of Congress or cushioned seats in public buildings, bringing an issue to Plaza Miranda was the ultimate act of transparency and accountability, where the people, any Juan or Juana de la Cruz, could question their government.

Regarded as the center of Philippine political discourse prior to the imposition of martial law in 1972, the plaza was the site of the famous 1971 Plaza Miranda bombing, where two grenades were launched at a political rally of the Liberal Party, killing nine people and nearly liquidated the party’s leadership.

The 1971 Plaza Miranda Bombing was, in a way, the square’s last hurrah as the country’s foremost stage for political discourse. The advent of mass media allowed candidates to reach a wide audience through television, radio and the internet. It made political rallies in the plaza reserved for proclamations or the traditional miting de avance. While no longer the grandest nor most prominent political forum, Plaza Miranda continues to remind Filipinos that Philippine democracy is alive and free.