Legacy of Compassion: The Arrival of the Sovereign Order of Malta in the Philippines

Three years after the end of the Second World War, the Sovereign Order of Malta formally arrived, at last, on Philippine shores. Though a small number of Knights already had figured in Philippine history, the Order had had no official representation in the country before the Spanish Knight Don Paulino Miranda Sampedro formed “The Delegation for the Spanish Association of the Order of Malta” in 1948.

A Knight of Magistral Grace of the Sovereign Order of Malta, Don Paulino was a distinguished Spanish businessman, the president and general manager of several companies, one of which was Philippine Net and Braid Company. A faithful Knight, he used his affluence for good, founding different organizations to uplift people’s lives.

Among these were the Spanish Juvenile Organization and the Social Auxiliary. He served as vice president of the charity Hospital Español de Santiago for poor Spanish patients — still extant today.

In fulfillment of his vow to care for “Our Lords, the sick and the poor,” Don Paulino, the one-man Hospitaller, as early as the 1930s, had set up a clinic in the name of the Order. The free clinic occupied a section of his office at the Philippine Net and Braid which sold fishing nets, fishing supplies, and Manila rope. The store and clinic were located on Juan Luna Street in Binondo, in the heart of Manila. Perhaps he located the clinic there because the humble fishermen who came to buy nets and twine from him, also could seek free treatment and medication.

Don Pedro Picornell, a friend of an employee there, recalled that:

The clinic bore the Order’s Coat of Arms over its entrance and dispensed first aid to residents of the area in Binondo where his store and office were situated. It was completely funded by Don Paulino.