AG2 Makati
MANILA, PHILIPPINES
A SLICE OF MAKATI text
TRACEY PASKA
03
02
Cut through a quiet neighbourhood tucked inside Barangay Poblacion, Makati’s oldest ward, and you will find an energetic microcosm of life in Metro Manila, wedged along the southern banks of the Pasig River between a notorious red light district and an affluent enclave. The community packs into an area half a kilometre long and half again as wide, a city’s worth of contradictions: old-timers and newcomers, trends and traditions, vice and virtue. On the corner of DM Rivera Street, for instance, I’ve often admired the beautifully preserved Baroque architecture of the 400-year-old Saints Peter and Paul Parish Church, with its barrel vaulted wood ceiling and ornate altarpiece adorned with statues. However, just a few blocks from this spiritual haven
04
A SLICE OF M AK ATI
PHI
M A K AT I
L IPPI NES
on Padre Burgos Street, a long line of windowless joints bear suggestive names like Rascals, Dimples and Bottoms, and promise experiences of a more sensual sort. In recent years, this section of Poblacion has become popular with hipsters, lending the dive bars and strip clubs a bit of cachet. In the more residential areas, houses offer an architectural perspective on encroaching gentrification and heritage preservation in the neighborhood. At the intersection of Fermina and Enriquez Streets, two pre-war era houses facing one another display elements of Philippine traditional and American colonial styles. But while one is covered in faded, chipped paint and rusted corrugated tin, the other gleams with a coat of pristine white, refreshed from a
A SLICE OF MAKATI text
TRACEY PASKA
03
02
Cut through a quiet neighbourhood tucked inside Barangay Poblacion, Makati’s oldest ward, and you will find an energetic microcosm of life in Metro Manila, wedged along the southern banks of the Pasig River between a notorious red light district and an affluent enclave. The community packs into an area half a kilometre long and half again as wide, a city’s worth of contradictions: old-timers and newcomers, trends and traditions, vice and virtue. On the corner of DM Rivera Street, for instance, I’ve often admired the beautifully preserved Baroque architecture of the 400-year-old Saints Peter and Paul Parish Church, with its barrel vaulted wood ceiling and ornate altarpiece adorned with statues. However, just a few blocks from this spiritual haven
04
A SLICE OF M AK ATI
PHI
M A K AT I
L IPPI NES
on Padre Burgos Street, a long line of windowless joints bear suggestive names like Rascals, Dimples and Bottoms, and promise experiences of a more sensual sort. In recent years, this section of Poblacion has become popular with hipsters, lending the dive bars and strip clubs a bit of cachet. In the more residential areas, houses offer an architectural perspective on encroaching gentrification and heritage preservation in the neighborhood. At the intersection of Fermina and Enriquez Streets, two pre-war era houses facing one another display elements of Philippine traditional and American colonial styles. But while one is covered in faded, chipped paint and rusted corrugated tin, the other gleams with a coat of pristine white, refreshed from a
