Makati

Also known as: Financial Center of the Philippines · Wall Street of the Philippines (Ayala Avenue) · Makati CBD

Definition

Makati, officially the City of Makati, is a highly urbanized city in Metro Manila and the Philippines’ leading financial and business center. It hosts the Makati Central Business District (CBD) around Ayala Avenue, the Philippine Stock Exchange, and the headquarters of many of the country’s largest banks and corporations. With about 300,000 residents in 2020 but a larger daytime workforce, it is a first-income-class city.

Identities

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makati
Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16586
DBpedia: http://dbpedia.org/resource/Makati

Also Known As

Financial Center of the Philippines
Wall Street of the Philippines (Ayala Avenue)
Makati CBD

Examples and Analogies

Makati is compared to Asian financial cores such as Singapore’s Raffles Place. Landmarks include Ayala Avenue (on the former Nielsen Airport runway), the PSE towers, the Glorietta and Greenbelt malls, the Ayala Museum, and the Nuestra Señora de Gracia Church. Rockwell and the Salcedo/Legazpi villages add offices and weekend markets.

Usage Scenarios

It is used for corporate headquarters, banking and finance, retail, dining and nightlife, diplomatic missions, and high-density residential living.

Strategies

Urban strategy focuses on transit-oriented development (MRT-3, the proposed subway), covered pedestrian walkways, mixed-use vertical growth, and disaster-resilience planning under the Makati command center, with Ayala Land partnerships driving CBD growth.

Security and Safety Measures

Makati runs one of the country’s most developed city emergency-response systems, with its own command center and free emergency hospital care for residents. The West Valley Fault crosses parts of the city, so codes enforce earthquake-resilient design; flood-prone spots near Pasig tributaries are managed.

Historical Context

Makati was a swampy Franciscan, then Jesuit, settlement that became the Hacienda de San Pedro de Macati under the Zobel de Ayala family. After World War II, the Ayalas developed the estate and airstrip into a planned business district from the late 1940s–1950s; it became a city in 1995.

Challenges and Controversies

Issues include traffic along EDSA and Ayala Avenue, a territorial dispute with Taguig over Fort Bonifacio (resolved by Supreme Court rulings), flooding, the gap between high-end CBDs and lower-income districts, and workforce housing pressures.