Trixie Cruz: A walking tour with Atty. Trixie Cruz Angeles in Intramuros, Manila

I had a date, with one pretty senorita. A walking tour with Atty. Trixie Cruz Angeles in Intramuros, Manila. I had her waiting and she was furiously texting!


“Where the hell are you macho maldita?!”

You see, dates like this, red carpet or not, I must make a grand entrance.

After all, I am one cute and very, very healthy Ilustrado. According to Wikipedia, an Ilustrado is an aphrodite! An enlightened one! And that was me. Ok. I’m reading this one without my glasses.

But beware La pretty senorita, because for all the waiting she did, behind that smile is one sudoku no one will ever understand! hahaha!

I was actually with Atty. Trixie Cruz Angeles, a legal counsel of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. She’s one high-powered military lawyer whose recent legal success was the acquittal of LCol. Achilles Segumalian and later of Major Jason Aquino, one of the officers of the elite Philippine Army Scout Rangers for violation of Article of War 67 or attempting to create or join a mutiny in relation to the February 2006 withdrawal of support against the Arroyo administration. That sweet success came on the sweetest day, February 14, 2011.

We had brunch at Ilustrado, one uberly nice restaurant which hosted a few other royalties like me. This place has hosted visiting heads of state such as King and Queen of Spain, President of Peru, President of Czeckoslovakia, King and Queen of Malaysia, Princess of Thailand, a Miss Universe and on that day? They were hosting DA Reyna Elena. They just didn’t know it! Hehehe! Trixie could not have picked a more perfect place, di ba?

It was one of those lazy Sundays, one beautiful sunny day in Manila. Trix called me up. “Let’s do a walking tour!” For all my years in Manila, imagine! I have never been “in Manila” actually. So, I was excited about this day, Trixie wanted me to see some sights behind this gate…

She brought me here… Baluarte de San Diego…

I saw Trix motioned me to climb the stairway to heaven. This woman can climb mountains! While I was already gasping for air! Hehehe! There, I saw the great wall of Intramuros.

I could sit here for hours. Very nice wind breeze, people from below were playing golf. She told me how the original moat was covered up in soil by the Americans because they were afraid of malaria outbreaks. In its stead, we have this golf course which unfortunately hides just how tall the walls used to be.

It sort of felt like I was in New Orleans, there’s a bayou below.

And then, I saw this… I did not know this place existed! It is one of the oldest stone fortifications in the country and one of the first the Spanish built in the late 1600s.

Ok. Wait! Picture!

Now isn’t this something all Filipinos should know?

(Source : reynaelena.com)