Long considered to be the finest hotel in the Philippines, the opulent Manila hotel was a prime goal of MacArthur’s return to a Philippines, as he had been forced to abandon his home in its penthouse when the Japanese invaded in 1941.

The seat of the Commonwealth Government, this reinforced concrete structure will be a fortress in the hands of die-hard Japanese troops.

The Central Post Office stood at the northern end of the government district in Ermita, a massive concrete structure that the Japanese intended to turn into a fortress.