BINONDO is the center of activities in Manila during the annual Chinese New Year celebrations where thousands gather for special performances (Dragon/Lion dances), cuisine, lucky charms, prosperity fruits, and boxes of “tikoy”.
Considered the first and oldest Chinatown in the world, Binondo was established in 1594 as a permanent settlement for Chinese immigrants, particularly those who had converted to Catholicism and intermarried with indigenous Filipinos.
It was positioned near Intramuros, but across the Pasig River, so that colonial rulers could keep a close eye on their migrant subjects amid fears of an imminent invasion from China.
In the years that followed, Binondo became the first stop for Chinese immigrants who arrived in Manila in search of a new life. It is the foundation of the Filipino-Chinese community amidst multiple occupations by colonizers.
Before World War II, Binondo was the center of a banking and financial community which included insurance companies, commercial banks and other financial institutions from Britain and the United States. These banks were located mostly along Escólta, which used to be called the “Wall Street of the Philippines”.
Many of Binondo’s commercial establishments were destroyed either partially or totally during World War II due to the bombings in the 1945 Battle of Manila. Companies began to relocate to Makati.
Part of the nation’s WW II history was the involvement of the Chinese in the fight against invading Imperial Japanese forces, led by Chinese-Filipino resistance groups like Wha-Chi and Ampaw.
Founded on May 19, 1942, Wha-Chi was also known as Philippine-Chinese Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Forces or Squadron 48, after the Communist Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army.
Former Chinese soldiers were forewarned about the impending Japanese invasion of the Pacific and were sent, or volunteered, to prevent the atrocities from occurring elsewhere in the Pacific including the so-called “the Rape of Nanking”. On December 13, 1937, Japanese troops began a six-week-long massacre that essentially destroyed the Chinese city of Nanking. Along the way, Japanese troops raped between 20,000 to 80,000 Chinese women.
Chinese soldiers who went to the Philippines helped in organizing the local guerilla groups.
Wha-chi were mostly single, young men, in their teens to early 20s. They were members of Chinese General Labour Union of the Philippines who fought the Japanese invaders in lowland provinces near Manila like Central Luzon alongside leftist Filipino guerrillas of the Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon (Hukbalahap).
Some Wha-chi served as guards along the paths and highways that the various guerrilla units would use throughout the duration of the raids from 1944-1945.
The Ampaw derived its name from the street food snack “puff rice” because of their undercover spy network in Manila disguised as puff rice street vendors. The Ampaw was founded in Antipolo, Rizal and made up particularly of mestizo Filipinos who had Chinese ancestry.
There were many battles between the Japanese and the Wha-Chi guerrillas including the liberation of the towns of Cabiao, Jaen, Santa Maria, San Fernando, and Tarlac from Japanese control.
In the final days of the war, Chinese guerrillas joined Filipino and American forces to free more than 2,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war in Los Baños, Laguna.
The Wha-Chi guerrillas helped fight during the “Battle of Manila” from February to March 1945, with a bloody aftermath: 1,101 U.S. soldiers died, 5,565 U.S. soldiers were wounded, an estimated 100,000 Filipino civilians were killed, and 16,665 Japanese were killed within Intramuros.
Realizing they were losing the war, the Japanese army, in their desperation, bloodily “cleansed” the country by committing horrific atrocities, engaging in arson, killing, and looting,. They began to vent their fury on civilians, including local Chinese. There were several massacres of the Chinese, the worst being in San Pablo, Laguna, where some 650 Chinese were bayoneted and beheaded on February 24, 1945.
Wachi descendants are part of the Flower for Lolas group that campaign for Filipina comfort women to receive a formal unequivocal public apology and just compensation from Japan as well as accurate historical inclusion.
About 200,000 women from Korea, China, Burma, New Guinea, and the Philippines were held in captivity and raped during the Second World War as part of one of the largest operations of sexual violence in modern history.
A memorial for Wha-Chi can be found in Manila Chinese Cemetery with a plaque in Filipino by the National Historical Commission.
The year 2025 marks the Year of the Wood Snake. Kung Hei Fat Choy!
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Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the seafarers’ division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan law offices. For comments, e-mail info@sapalovelez.com, or call 0908-8665786./PN
