diff --git a/src/tools/android/java/com/google/devtools/build/android/ManifestMergerAction.java b/src/tools/android/java/com/google/devtools/build/android/ManifestMergerAction.java
index 3d7d273405cf41..54e487d3dd1f18 100644
--- a/src/tools/android/java/com/google/devtools/build/android/ManifestMergerAction.java
+++ b/src/tools/android/java/com/google/devtools/build/android/ManifestMergerAction.java
@@ -174,8 +174,7 @@ private static Path removePermissions(Path manifest, Path outputDir)
       }
     }
     // Write resulting manifest to the output directory, maintaining full path to prevent collisions
-    Path output = outputDir.resolve(manifest.toString().replaceFirst("^/", ""));
-    Files.createDirectories(output.getParent());
+    Path output = Files.createTempFile(outputDir, "AndroidManifest", ".xml");
     TransformerFactory.newInstance()
         .newTransformer()
         .transform(new DOMSource(doc), new StreamResult(output.toFile()));