The Embassy of the United States of America to the Philippines is the

diplomatic mission A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...

of the United States in the Philippines. is situated in the Chancery Building of the Manila American Embassy along Roxas Boulevard (formerly Dewey Boulevard) in

Ermita Ermita is a district in Manila, Philippines. Located at the central part of the city, the district is a significant center of finance, education, culture, and commerce. Ermita serves as the civic center of the city, bearing the seat of city g ...

, Manila. The Embassy has been representing the

United States Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

since the Philippines was granted independence on July 4, 1946. The Manila mission is one of the

US Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other ...

's largest posts, employing close to 300 Americans and 1,000

Foreign Service Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel obtains diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to o ...

national employees. The mission also hosts the only foreign office of the

Department of Veterans Affairs The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers an ...

, which caters to some 18,000 American and Filipino veterans and their widows in the Philippines (see also

Filipino Veterans Fairness Act The Filipino Veterans Fairness Act is the name of a number of acts that have been introduced to the United States Congress in both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate since the 103rd Congress in 1993. Since then, ...

.) Manila's Regional Printing Center provides printing and distribution services for overseas and domestic publications. Smaller branches exist in

Vienna, Austria en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and Washington, D.C. but Manila is the flagship facility.

History

The chancery of the Embassy in Manila was first constructed to house the United States High Commission to the Philippines and was designed by the US Treasury Department, Procurement Division, Public Buildings Branch after considering and later rejecting a design by the notable Filipino

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Juan M. Arellano Juan Marcos Arellano y de Guzmán (April 25, 1888 – December 5, 1960), or Juan M. Arellano, was a Filipino architect, best known for Manila's Metropolitan Theater (1935), Legislative Building (1926; now houses the National Museum of Fi ...

. The building is built on reclaimed land that was a gift from the

Government of the Philippines The Government of the Philippines ( fil, Pamahalaan ng Pilipinas) has three interdependent branches: the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The Philippines is governed as a unitary state under a presidential representative and d ...

and sits on more than 600 reinforced concrete piles that were sunk 60 feet into the site. The site was originally designed as a

demesne A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. The concept or ...

along

Manila Bay Manila Bay ( fil, Look ng Maynila) is a natural harbor that serves the Port of Manila (on Luzon), in the Philippines. Strategically located around the Manila, capital city of the Philippines, Manila Bay facilitated commerce and trade between t ...

, which featured a revival-style mansion that took advantage of the seaside vista. It was insisted, though, that a

federal-style Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was heavily based on the works of Andrea Palladio with several inn ...

building be built. The chancery was completed in 1940. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, after the Fall of Bataan, the property became the residence of the Commander-in-Chief of the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emper ...

in the Philippines. When the Japanese-sponsored Puppet Republic was established in 1943, the building was repainted and refurbished and served as the Embassy of Japan to the Philippines. During its recapture by Allied forces and Philippine guerrillas, the building was seriously damaged but its

ballroom A ballroom or ballhall is a large room inside a building, the primary purpose of which is holding large formal parties called balls. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions and palaces, especially historic ...

, among other rooms, remained intact. In October 1945,

quonset hut A Quonset hut is a lightweight prefabricated structure of corrugated galvanized steel having a semi cylindrical cross-section. The design was developed in the United States, based on the Nissen hut introduced by the British during World War ...

s were erected throughout the property and became known as ''The Courthouse'', the center of the

Japanese war crimes The Empire of Japan committed war crimes in many Asian-Pacific countries during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese and Pacific Wars. These incidents have been described as an "Asian Holocaust". Som ...

trial in the Philippines, with the ballroom serving as the courtroom and the upstairs rooms serving as holding cells. On July 4, 1946, the Philippines was granted independence by the United States and the building became known as the United States Embassy in Manila. As a testament to its battle-scarred history, its flagpole was never restored and still retains the bulletholes it sustained during the war. The chancery has also been designated as historic property by the National Historical Institute of the Philippines as well as being on the

United States Secretary of State The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...

's register of culturally significant places.

Embassy sections

The Embassy exercises a number of functions in its representation the Government of the Philippines, including

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studi ...

, administrative,

economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with th ...

public diplomacy In international relations, public diplomacy or people's diplomacy, broadly speaking, is any of the various government-sponsored efforts aimed at communicating directly with foreign publics to establish a dialogue designed to inform and influen ...

, and

consular A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

affairs, that are managed under the Ambassador by counselors from the U.S.

Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other na ...

. For bilateral development projects, the managing office is the

United States Agency for International Development The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 b ...

, while military affairs are managed by Defense Attaché and the Joint U.S. Military Assistance Group in the Philippines. The

Veterans Administration The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers an ...

also has its only overseas office, and

outpatient clinic An outpatient department or outpatient clinic is the part of a hospital designed for the treatment of outpatients, people with health problems who visit the hospital for diagnosis or treatment, but do not at this time require a bed or to be admitte ...

, at the Embassy in Manila. *Consular Section **American Citizen Services **Visa Services *Economic Section *Defense Attaché *Public Affairs *Political Section *Management Section *Other U.S. Government Agencies ** U.S. Agency for International Development **U.S. Ambassador to the

Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field of ...

**U.S. Foreign Agricultural Services **U.S. Commercial Service **U.S.

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John ...

-Philippines **Regional Printing Center-Manila **

Social Security Administration The United States Social Security Administration (SSA) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that administers Social Security, a social insurance program consisting of retirement, disability and survivor benefits. To qualify f ...

**U.S.

International Broadcasting Bureau The International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) is the technical support outlet within the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) (former Broadcasting Board of Governors, BBG), which is a U.S. independent agency. The IBB supports the day-to- ...

**Joint U.S. Military Assistance Group **Foreign Commercial Service Liaison Office to the Asian Development Bank **U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services There is also an American

Consular Agent A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

Cebu Cebu (; ceb, Sugbo), officially the Province of Cebu ( ceb, Lalawigan sa Sugbo; tl, Lalawigan ng Cebu; hil, Kapuroan sang Sugbo), is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, and consists of a main island and 16 ...

as well as a virtual consulate in

Davao City Davao City, officially the City of Davao ( ceb, Dakbayan sa Dabaw; ), is a first class highly urbanized city in the Davao Region, Philippines. The city has a total land area of , making it the largest city in the Philippines in terms of land ...

Staff

MaryKay Carlson MaryKay Loss Carlson is an American diplomat who has served as the United States ambassador to the Philippines since 2022. She was previously the United States chargé d'affaires in Argentina from 2021 to 2022, after having served as the Deputy C ...

is the current United States Ambassador to the Philippines. Senior American diplomat Heather Variava had assumed the role of

chargé d’affaires Chargé () is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France. Chargé is a small town near Amboise. The Rock 'in Chargé festival has revitalized the village sinc2006 Population The inhabitants are called ''Chargéens''. See al ...

at the United States Embassy in Manila, succeeding John Law who ended his tour of duty in the Philippines this September."US Embassy in Manila has new chargé d’affaires". September 17, 2021, Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1153836

References

# Alcazaren, Paulo (12 November 2005), "Juan M de Guzman Arellano : Renaissance Man", ''The Philippine Star''.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE’S REGISTER OF CULTURALLY SIGNIFICANT PROPERTY
# Ricciardone, C. (October 2002), "Post of the Month: Manila", ''State Magazine''.

External links

Embassy of the United States in Manila website
{{Authority control

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populated ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Buildings and structures in Ermita Register of Culturally Significant Property Philippines–United States relations Juan M. Arellano buildings

History

Embassy sections

Staff

See also

References

External links