A Place My Heart Will Never Leave

A part of me will always remain in this city.


Makati City, the Philippines. I started working here right after college. In the four jobs I held in the Philippines prior to migrating to the United States, three of the jobs were in this city.

The place has changed a lot since the last time I was here. There are a lot more tall and impressive skyscrapers. I remember back in the day when the 28-storey Pacific Star building (the white building at the left of the photo above) at the corner of Makati Avenue and Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue (Buendia) opened its doors to the public. The Republic of Nauru was one of the building's owners and representatives of the island republic's government were present at the building's inauguration. The newspapers hailed it as the country's tallest skyscraper.

Now, 20 years later, what used to be its magnificent white paint has turned a rather shoddy gray thus making the building look old and neglected when compared to the shiny new skyscrapers that have reshaped the Makati skyline.

There are a lot more restaurants and high-rise residential condominium buildings. The presence of call centers have turned Makati into a 24-hour city. A city not unlike Manhattan where finding a place to eat at any hour isn't a problem, a feature that's near and dear to yours truly's heart. Hehehe

The old Schwarzwalder restaurant that used to stand at the corner of Makati Avenue and Dela Rosa street is gone. An expanded Ayala Museum now stands on its old spot. My old office building on Dela Rosa street is gone too and on its old spot now stands a tall and impressive residential condominium building. Old carpark buildings now house 24-hour restaurants on their ground floors.

The Greenbelt and Glorietta shopping areas have changed a lot mostly for the better. What I used to know as Greenbelt is now known as Greenbelt 1. The old Makati Supermarket is gone and on its old spot stands Greenbelt 3.

These days, one can pretty much walk from EDSA all the way to Paseo de Roxas without having to expose one's self to the sun's rays. That wasn't the case when I worked in the area years ago. There were no pedestrian underpasses then and the shopping centers were a lot less crowded.

Traffic hasn't improved though. Countless cars still clog its streets. The fact that a lot of Makati CBD's streets are curved and narrow do not help improve the traffic flow situation at all. Parking remains at a premium and a number of taxicab drivers still discriminate when picking up passengers.

But anyway, I was glad to spend some time in this city even for just a short while. I love the city in spite of its imperfections. Anyway, every other city in the world has its own problems. Makati City and its buildings awed me as a child and I still remember the joy I felt the day I found out that I was to work here. For me, and a lot of others who dreamt of building a career in the corporate world, Makati City was the place where one set out to make a name for one's self. And as I looked at the changes around me last week, I still believe that Makati City remains as the place to be for those who want to make a name for themselves in the Philippine corporate scene.

Photo Credit: MQ