There are few visible signs that one of Manila's hottest property markets used to be part of a military camp where Ferdinand Marcos detained hundreds of his critics, including Ninoy Aquino, whose 1983 assassination eventually led to the late Philippine dictator's ousting.

But Narciso Abaya, the former armed forces chief of staff, can document the transition. "The military intelligence training school used to be over there," he says, pointing from his first-floor office to a block of low-lying buildings occupied by a McDonald's, a UCC Coffee and other fast-food outlets and shops. A few metres further down is a shopping mall built over a cave that used to house the army museum, he adds.