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Seal of Manila | |
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Armiger | City of Manila |
Adopted | 1970 (Present seal) |
Earlier version(s) | 1950, 1965 |
Use | To represent Manila and the City Government, and as a seal of approval to authenticate certain documents and local government legislation. |
The Seal of Manila is composed of the city's modern coat-of-arms, with colors mirroring those of the Philippine National Flag. It is a modified form of the city's historical arms bestowed in the 16th century.
The arms of the seal consist of a pre-Hispanic shield, horizontally divided into red and blue fields. The top, red half depicts the city's nickname, "Pearl of the Orient", while the lower, blue half is charged with a sea-lion surmounting the waves of the River Pasig and Manila Bay. The sea-lion originally represented the islands's former colonial status as an ultramar (overseas) possession of Spain, and is ultimately derived from the arms of the Kingdom of León.
A white roundel surrounds the arms containing the words Lungsod ng Maynila and Pilipinas (Filipino, "City of Manila"; "Philippines") in Helvetica font (said font officially in use since 2019) and six yellow stars representing the city's six congressional districts.