Makati (/məˈkɑːti/ mə-KAH-tee Tagalog pronunciation: [maˈkati]), officially the City of
Makati (Tagalog: Lungsod ng Makati), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in Metropolitan
Manila, Philippines.
Makati is the financial center of the Philippines; it has the highest concentration of multinational and
local corporations in the country.[5] Major banks, corporations, department stores as well as foreign
embassies are based in Makati. The biggest trading floor of the Philippine Stock Exchange used to
be situated along the city's Ayala Avenue.[6][7][8] Makati is also known for being a major cultural and
entertainment hub in Metro Manila.[9]
According to the 2015 census, it has a population of 582,602 people [3] making it as the 17th most
populous city in the country and ranked as the 41st most densely populated city in the world with
19,336 inhabitants per square kilometer. Although its population is just half a million, the daytime
population of the city is estimated to be more than one million during a typical working day because
of the large number of people who go to the city to work, shop, and do business.[10] Traffic is
expected mostly during rush hour and holiday seasons.
Contents
1Etymology
2History
o 2.1American period
o 2.2Post-war
o 2.3Cityhood
o 2.4Present
3Geography
o 3.1Climate
o 3.2Cityscape
4Demographics
5Economy and infrastructure
o 5.1Shopping centers
6Education
7Existing landmarks
o 7.1J. P. Rizal Street
o 7.2Little Tokyo
o 7.3Magallanes Interchange
o 7.4Museo ng Makati
o 7.5Nuestra Señora de Gracia Church
o 7.6Saints Peter and Paul Church
o 7.7Gabriela Silang monument
8Former landmarks
o 8.1Hotel InterContinental Manila
o 8.2Hagdang Bato
o 8.3Rizal Theater
o 8.4Santa Ana Cabaret
o 8.5Santa Ana Racetrack
o 8.6Santiago Hospital
9Culture and sports
10Future development
11Transportation
o 11.1Land
o 11.2Railways
o 11.3Airport
o 11.4Water
12Local government
o 12.1Barangays
o 12.2Mayors
o 12.3Seal of Makati City
13International relations
o 13.1Diplomatic missions
14Sister cities
15See also
16References
17External links
Etymology[edit]
Tradition holds that a Tagalog at a swamp on the south of the Pasig River was asked by a visitor,
who was Miguel López de Legazpi, for the name of the place. As a result of the language barrier the
question was misinterpreted; the Tagalog pointed to the receding tide of the Pasig River, and
answered "Makati, kumákáti na" ("Ebbing, the tide is ebbing").[11]
History[edit]
Parts of the city were once subject to the pre-Hispanic Kingdom of Namayan, whose capital is now
in the Santa Ana district of Manila.
Captain Pedro de Brito, a retired aide to the Spanish army chief of staff, is the founder and patron of
the House of San Pedro. De Brito made a modest fortune in the Manila galleon trade in the 16th
century. He was also a regidor of Manila, whose post was adjudged to him at public auction for one
thousand four hundred pesos of common gold, with the third part of what was promised from the
increase. He took possession of his post on 24 June 1589.
In 1589, he acquired at a public auction a sprawling marshland measuring 4940 hectares, a part of
which would become the 20th-century Makati. After his acquisition of the land, Capitan de Brito
immediately took steps to "discharge the royal conscience", to fulfill, for the King of Spain, his duty to
spread the Christian gospel. This effort was stymied, however, by local resistance to the forced
dispossession of the land.
The Spaniards then assigned the area to the town of Santa Ana de Sapa and in the 1600s[12] began
to be developed as a pilgrimage center around the churches of Our Lady of Guadalupe (now Our
Lady of Grace, opened 1625) and of Saints Peter and Paul (opened 1620) in what is today
the población, built by missionary friars to attract worshippers, and also as a farming community. It
became an independent municipality in 1670, and was christened San Pedro de Macati in honour of
the town's patron, Saint Peter. The town was also famous for its pottery industry since the 18th
century, with skilled potters trained by Jesuit priests.[citation needed] Its strategic location also made it a
pitstop for pilgrims, travelling by foot or boat, towards the shrine of Our Lady of Peace and Good
Voyage in Antipolo. Beginning in the early 19th century, the church has been directly administered
by diocesean secular clergy.
In 1718 the Jesuits brought the Image of Nuestra Señora Virgen de la Rosa from Acapulco Mexico
to the small town, it was later enthroned at the San Pedro Macati Church where it resides to this very
day, and will mark its 300th anniversary in June 2018. Until the Filipino American War, the image
had an ivory head and hands and a reliquary on her breast which contained a strand of a hair of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, both of them stolen and were never recovered at the same time while the
church served as a hospital, and are today replaced by an oval cavity and a wooden head and
hands. The city's feast days on June 29, the feast of Apostles Peter and Paul, and June 30, the feast
of Our Lady of the Rose are marked with the "Panatang Sayaw", as the Bailes de los Arcos (Dance
of the Arches) are called, are an old tradition going back at least to the beginnings of the 19th
century as a dance to thank the city patrons for blessings received by its people[13] and by a number
of events organized by city and religious leaders.
In 1851, Don José Bonifacio Róxas (an ancestor of the Zóbel de Ayala family) purchased
the Jesuit estate of "Hacienda San Pedro de Macati" for 52,800 pesos.[14] Since then, the
development of Makati has remained linked with the Zóbel de Ayala family and their company, Ayala
Corporation.[15]
The town was a cradle of Filipino passive resistance against Spanish colonial rule in the 1890s and
the subsequent Philippine Revolution, with the participation of the local Katipunan council based in
the area with Pio del Pilar, a local resident from the village of Culi-Culi, as its president.[citation needed] Culi-
Culi is now a barangay named in honour of Del Pilar.
American period[edit]
By 1898, Spain ceded the Philippines and other overseas possessions to the United States after the
former's defeat in the Spanish–American War. In 1901, the Americans declared the whole area
south of the Pasig River, including the town of San Pedro de Macati, down to Alabang in Muntinlupa,
a US military reservation, thus establishing Fort McKinley (now Fort Bonifacio). That same year, the
whole town, with a population of 25,000, was incorporated from the Province of Manila to the new
province of Rizal, with Marcelino Magsaysay serving as the town president.[citation needed] As the 1910s
approached, the Meralco tranvia lines to Fort McKinley and to the western end of the town were
built, opening transport lines for its residents and thus brought along potential investors who opened
several businesses including the famous Santa Ana Cabaret at the terminus of the streetcar lines.
On February 28, 1914, the Philippine Legislature passed Act 2390, shortening the name, San Pedro
de Macati, to simply Makati.
In 1937, the airport Nielsen Field opened in what is now the Ayala Triangle, the control tower of
which still exists and is currently a restaurant. The tracks of the now Philippine National
Railways reached Makatie early in the decade. During that same period, Santa Ana Park, the
nation's second horse racing facility, opened to expectations from horse racing fans.[citation needed]
