via The Manila Times, 12 March 2023: Lawyer Joan Padilla is the new head of Intramuros Administration, the agency that manages the historic walled city of Manila. She aims to revitalize Intramuros as a cultural and tourism hub, and hopes to win the World Travel Awards as Asia’s Leading Tourist Attraction in 2023.
March is Women’s Month, a time to celebrate and recognize the endless contributions of the female sex to society. Through the years, women have ably been a major force toward progress, innovation and change wherever they may be, and over the walls of historic Intramuros, Manila today, the lady to do so is lawyer Joan Padilla.
Deemed best to lead Intramuros Administration (IA) — home to many of the country’s famous landmarks such as Fort Santiago, Manila Cathedral, San Agustin Church and Plaza De Roma — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. appointed Padilla for the formidable post and sworn in last January 24. She is officially Intramuros’ 11th Administrator and the third woman to lead it after Edda Henson and Anna Maria Harper in 1990 and 2010, respectively.
As the Administrator, Padilla is responsible for directing Intramuros’s orderly restoration and development as a monument to the Hispanic period of Philippine history. As such, her office is tasked to ensure that the general appearance of Intramuros shall duly conform to Philippine-Spanish architecture from the 16th to the 19th century to realize IA’s vision to consistently exist as “a model urban site of national historical and cultural heritage [while] sustaining people and life systems within, and contributing to national cultural and socio-economic progress.”
