In 2017, I visited the Fort Bonifacio Tenement in the southern area of Manila, a vast residential complex built in the early 1960s as a public housing project for low-income families in the capital.

Many locals now call it “Tenement Town,” a name chosen to affirm their identity and independence, almost as if to reclaim a city within the city.

The building has seven floors and around seven hundred small apartments, but what stands out is not the structure itself,  it’s the life within it: a close-knit community able to transform a difficult space into a place of belonging.

In 2010, the building was declared unsafe after structural assessments revealed issues such as lack of running water, cracks in the walls, and damaged floors. This led to repeated eviction threats.

Between 2010 and 2018, nineteen eviction notices were issued, yet the residents refused to leave, standing firm in defense of their homes.

Over time, the Tenement has become a symbol of urban resilience, a community rich in humanity and complexity, asking to be heard and recognized.

My photographic work on Tenement Town is a tribute to this quiet dignity, to a community that has remained united and turned its living space into a mark of identity and memory.