suggesting a lump sum that is always more than a metered trip. But don’t fret; these practices are not prevalent and should the meter not go on (or in rare cases a previous fare not be erased), a good-natured reminder to the driver to ‘turn your meter on’ will usually do the trick.

The one exception to this rule is when traffic is jammed due to rush hour or rain. In these cases you may give your driver a break and agree to a fare in advance. However it shouldn’t be more than P100 over what the fare would normally be.

The official flag-fall rate is P30 plus P2.5 for every 500 meters or two minutes of waiting time. Tips of roughly 10% are always appreciated. And do like the cabbies: lock your doors.

History
The city of Manila was established in 1571 when the Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legaspi arrived and made it the capitol of the colony “Felipinas.” At the time of Legaspi’s arrival, Manila was a walled Moslem settlement ruled by the Rajah Sulayman, who collected duties from the traders from neighboring island countries who wanted to travel up the Pasig River. Sulayman resisted the intrusion of the Spanish and fled across the river to the area known today as Tondo. When Sulayman’s men met Legaspi’s forces at the Battle of Bangkusay Channel on June 3, 1571, they faced the muskets and cannons of the Spanish with only spears and arrows. The Moslems were defeated, and Sulayman himself lost his life during the battle.

Although the Chinese invaded Manila in 1574 and the Dutch in the mid-seventeenth century, the Spanish retained control of Manila for 327 years, except for a brief interlude in 1762 (during the Seven Years’ War) when the British occupied the city. When the Seven Years’ War ended, Manila was once again under the rule of Spain as a condition of the 1763 Treaty of Paris. The Spanish brought Roman Catholicism to Manila, founding many churches, convents, and schools. This influence remains to this day, as the Philippines are the only Asian country in which Christianity is the predominant faith.

The citizens of Manila chafed under the yoke of Spanish domination. The seeds of revolution germinated in 1886 with the publication of Dr. Jose Rizal’s book Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not), a novel critical of the way the Spanish friars were governing the Philippines. The Spanish condemned Noli Me Tangere, and Rizal was exiled to Hong Kong. In 1892 he returned to Manila to found La Liga Filipina, a nationalistic organization. Later that year in the Tondo section of Manila, Andres Bonifacio founded the Katipunan, a secret organization devoted to attaining Filipino freedom from Spain. The Spanish discovered the Katipunan in August of 1896 and banished hundreds of Filipinos. Many others were killed. Within ten days, the Katipunan Revolt began, with an open declaration of war against Spain. Jose Rizal became a martyr of the revolution when the Spanish executed him by firing squad on December 30, 1896, in Bagumbayan, Taguig (now part of Metro Manila), for his alleged role in the Katipunan Revolt.

With the unmasking of the Katipunan, Andres Bonifacio called the Tejeros Convention, at which the revolutionary Tejeros government was formed, with General Emilio Aguinaldo at its head. The Tejeros government was unsuccessful in its fight for freedom from Spain, and as part of the Pact of Biak-na-Bato peace treaty, General Aguinaldo accepted exile in Hong Kong.

Despite the failure of the Tejeros revolution, Spanish rule of the Philippines was soon to come to an end. The Spanish-American War battlefield spread to Manila in 1898, where U.S. Commodore George Dewey defeated the Spanish fleet in the Battle of Manila Bay. With the Americans came General Aguinaldo, arriving on the U.S. warship USS