Plaza Dilao is one of five freedom parks in the City of Manila, where protests and rallies may be held without requiring permission from local authorities.

[3] In Spanish colonial times, Paco (originally Dilao) was home to one of two Japanese settlements in Manila, with the other in San Miguel.

[1] While the Japanese community of Plaza Dilao began with Dom Justo Takayama and his family settling in the surrounding area after they were exiled from Japan in 1615,[2] most Japanese in Manila at the time were settled around the area now occupied by the Philippine Normal University.

During World War II, the area was the site of an intense battle between Japanese and joint Filipino and American forces led by Cleto Rodriguez.

[9] The Paco substation of Meralco, a part of the Sucat–Paco–Araneta–Balintawak Transmission Line of National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), is located west of the plaza.