The Malinta Tunnel Visit, Corregidor Island, PHILIPPINES
1 min readThe Malinta Tunnel Visit, Corregidor Island, PHILIPPINES
Firstly, I must thank Tourism Philippines for inviting PlacesAndFoods.com for the Manila FAM Tour last month. Due to my work schedule, I sent a representative on behalf of PlacesAndFoods.com for this trip.
A: Malinta Tunnel, Corregidor Island
The Corredigor Island is located 48 kilometers of west of Manila and it is popular for its involvements in the World War II. The Malinta Tunnel is no ordinary tunnel on Corredigor Island.
The tunnel complex is built by United States Army Corps which initially used as a bomb-proof storage and personnel bunker. It was later then used as a 1000 bed hospital.
The main tunnel is 831 feet long, 24 feet wide and 18 feet high. From the main there are 13 lateral tunnels on the north side and 11 lateral tunnels on the south side.
Walking into the Malinta Tunnel is not that distance. There is AV (audio visual) presentation by National Artist Lamberto V. Avellana of events that actually happened during World War II. It was quite an experience, by going through the facts of the war within the tunnel.
One of the audio visual section of the Malinta Tunnel, recreating the actual events
Interesting facts on Malinta Tunnel, Corregidor Island via Wikipedia.org:
- During the Battle of Corregidor, the third lateral on the north side from the east entrance was served as the headquarters of General Douglas MacArthur and USAFFE.
- The tunnel also served as the seat of the government of the Commonwealth of Philippines.
- During the re-taking of the island by U.S forces in 1945, Japanese soldiers who held out inside the Malinta Tunnel began committing suicide by detonating explosives within the bowled of the tunnel complex the night of February 23, 145.
How to get to Malinta Tunnel:
Most Corregidor Island tour includes Malinta Tunnel tour in the itinerary. The ferry ride to Corregidor Island took around approx. 1 hour 15 min from Manila Bay. The Corregidor Island tour also includes other sight-seeing tour.
Ive been to this island in several occasions. This is one of the must-see destinations while visiting Manila, either for just a day-trip or staying for overnight/few days in the island. I also posted in my blogsite my 2010 visit to the island: http://etravelworld.blogspot.com/