How the Manila Temple survived a rebel occupation

[pam]

“During the first day of the attempted coup, gunfire and bombing could be heard from our temple. That night the road in front of the temple was occupied by rebel armoured vehicles, trucks, and many soldiers. With the coming of daylight on Saturday, these rebel forces exchanged gunfire with the loyal government troops in Camp Aguinaldo. Opposing aircraft fired rockets and dropped bombs,” he said.

https://mormonhub.com/blog/faith/lds-temples/temple-rebel-occupation/

[NeuroTypical]

This is a pretty darn amazing story, whether you are inclined to believe divine intervention was or wasn't involved here.

[pam]

It is a pretty amazing story.

[anatess2]

I related this story on fast and testimony meeting in our ward after General Conference when they announced another temple opening in that same city.  Imagine this - 2 temples within a few miles from each other in a predominantly Catholic country.  I believe there is only one other city (in Brazil?) that has 2 temples outside of the USA.

[Jane_Doe]

6 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

 Imagine this - 2 temples within a few miles from each other in a predominantly Catholic country.  I believe there is only one other city (in Brazil?) that has 2 temples outside of the USA.

I don't think any city besides Provo has two temples.  Am I wrong?

[anatess2]

2 minutes ago, Jane_Doe said:

I don't think any city besides Provo has two temples.  Am I wrong?

Okay, I may have used city in the wrong usage.  I maybe needed to use metro area.  So... the new temple announced is going to be in Muntinlupa.  The current temple is in Quezon City.  Quezon City and Muntinlupa are both within metro Manila.  Quezon City and Muntinlupa are within 20 miles of each other!

[Jane_Doe]

8 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

Okay, I may have used city in the wrong usage.  I maybe needed to use metro area.  So... the new temple announced is going to be in Muntinlupa.  The current temple is in Quezon City.  Quezon City and Muntinlupa are both within metro Manila.  Quezon City and Muntinlupa are within 20 miles of each other!

I meant "I don't think any city has 2 temples besides Provo and the upcoming Manila ones".  Sorry I misspoke.  

Granted the term "city" is relative here.... like UT has a bunch of close temples that are just in different city jurisdictions...

Edited November 30, 2017 by Jane_Doe

[pam]

Here is a map of where the temples in Brazil are located.  Red dots are those currently in operation.  Blue is for those under construction and yellow dots are for announced temples.

[anatess2]

7 minutes ago, pam said:

Here is a map of where the temples in Brazil are located.  Red dots are those currently in operation.  Blue is for those under construction and yellow dots are for announced temples.

That's it!  Campinas is within Sao Paolo metro.  I checked the distance and it seems like Sao Paulo temple is 60 miles from the one in Campinas.  So the Manila temples are even closer!  That's super amazing to me.  It makes me teary eyed thinking about it.

Edited November 30, 2017 by anatess2

[Jane_Doe]

1 minute ago, anatess2 said:

That's it!  Campinas is within Sao Paolo metro.  I checked the distance and it seems like Sao Paulo is 60 miles from Campinas.  So the Manila temples are even closer!  That's super amazing to me.  It makes me teary eyed thinking about it.

From the look of it Campinas and San Paolo are different cities- there's forest between the two.  Wikipedia does say they are in the same San Paolo state.  (This would probably be better coming from somebody who's doing more than Google-stalking).

[anatess2]

6 minutes ago, Jane_Doe said:

From the look of it Campinas and San Paolo are different cities- there's forest between the two.  Wikipedia does say they are in the same San Paolo state.  (This would probably be better coming from somebody who's doing more than Google-stalking).

I looked at the temple list and yeah, it does seem like only Provo and Manila have 2 entries of the same name!  Now that's even more amazing.

[pam]

8 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

I looked at the temple list and yeah, it does seem like only Provo and Manila have 2 entries of the same name!  Now that's even more amazing.

I'm only seeing one name for Manila.  Or maybe I'm just blind. 

[anatess2]

22 minutes ago, pam said:

I'm only seeing one name for Manila.  Or maybe I'm just blind. 

The other one is not built yet.  It was just announced... I believe last April conference.  So you have the Manila Philippines Temple that has been in operation since the 80's and then there's the Greater Manila Philippines Temple which just got announced.

[pam]

Just now, anatess2 said:

The other one is not built yet.  It was just announced... I believe last April conference.  So you have the Manila Philippines Temple that has been in operation since the 80's and then there's the Greater Manila Philippines Temple which just got announced.

Awwww that's why I didn't see it.  I was looking at an alphabetical listing.  Thanks for the clarification.    So I'm not totally blind.  

[anatess2]

15 minutes ago, pam said:

Awwww that's why I didn't see it.  I was looking at an alphabetical listing.  Thanks for the clarification.    So I'm not totally blind.  

You might have a really bad case of cataracts.  Those white gumdrops are looking like you can't see through them. 

Where did you get that map from?  I'm very interested to see where the dots are in Utah!

 

[SilentOne]

South Jordan has both the Jordan River and Oquirrh Mountain temples. The Jordan River is currently closed for renovations, but I think it does still count as a temple.

[askandanswer]

My brother in law ( now deceased) was head of security at Manila Temple and on the temple grounds during both the far more dangerous, large scale, and ultimately successful 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution and the very half-hearted doomed to fail 1989 attempted coup. I was serving my mission in the Philippines during the EDSA revolution and  I was married in the Manila Temple just ten months before the 1989 attempted coup. The picture below is of EDSA, one of the main roads in Metro Manila, taken during the 1986 revolution. The road to the temple runs off EDSA and is only about a mile from EDSA. The President who the revolution was against had his troops, tanks and gunships on the streets and in the air ready to attack this crowd. If he'd said the word it would have been worse than the Tiananmen Square massacre in China, which, coincidentally, also happened in 1989. 

 

[anatess2]

2 hours ago, askandanswer said:

The President who the revolution was against had his troops, tanks and gunships on the streets and in the air ready to attack this crowd. If he'd said the word it would have been worse than the Tiananmen Square massacre in China, which, coincidentally, also happened in 1989. 

Except he would never have done that.  First off, he would never have gone to war against the Catholic Church.  And secondly, his methods may have been questionable but he loved the Filipino people.  His beef was against the Islamic terrorists, the Communists, and the oligarchs.  Nothing much has changed as far as who we are at war against from the end of WWII to today, unfortunately.  Things just get bogged down trying to strike a balance in finding that strong leader who doesn't end up usurping all power and keeping the government away from the hands of the oligarchy.  It doesn't help that 3 centuries of Spanish rule gave us that legacy of corruption keeping people within protectionist self-interests.  That's why that temple not having been razed in 1989 is an amazing miracle.  Honasan wouldn't touch Catholic structures but non-Catholic ones are more than fair game.