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Makati ( mə-KAH-tee; Tagalog pronunciation: [mɐˈkaː.t̪ɪ]), officially the City of Makati (Filipino: Lungsod ng Makati), is a highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. It is the country's leading center for finance, commerce, business, and diplomacy, and is home to numerous foreign embassies and diplomatic missions. Makati has the largest skyline in the country, with 432 high-rises and skyscrapers, including 138 that exceed 100 m (328 ft) in height. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 309,770 people.
Covering 18.17 square kilometers (7.02 sq mi), Makati is one of the smallest cities in the Philippines by land area. It is bordered by Mandaluyong to the north, Taguig to the east, Pasay to the southwest, and Manila to the northwest. The city's daytime population swells to between 3.2 and 4.2 million due to the concentration of workers in its central business district. As of 2023, Makati had an estimated GDP per capita of ₱1,778,002, the highest among Philippine cities.
The name of Makati originates from the Tagalog word kati, meaning "[of the] low tide" or "[of the] ebb tide", attributing to the tidal movements of the adjacent Pasig River. It originated from a misheard response in 1571 by locals to then-Governor-General Miguel López de Legazpi, who recorded the place's name as "Macati" after hearing them exclaim "Makati na! Kumakati na!" (transl. "It's low tide! The tide is ebbing!"). Used during the colonial eras, "Macati" was the historical Hispanized spelling of "Makati;" it was also spelled as "Macaty" or "Macali." Alternatively, the word may also mean "itchy", attributed to the lipang kalabaw plant (Dendrocnide meyeniana) that once grew in the area.
Until 1914, it was named San Pedro [de] Macati, a name stylized in Spanish after its patron saint, Saint Peter. The name was chosen by his namesake, Spanish captain Pedro de Brito, for his encomienda named Hacienda Pedro (now part of the present-day city), and in honor of Rev. Fr. Pedro de los Montes, who built the namesake church now known as Saints Peter and Paul Parish Church. Alternatively, it was wholly spelled in its Filipinized or Tagalized form, "San Pedro [de] Makati." The name was colloquially shortened to "Sampiro" by residents, referring to both the then-town and the church.
Parts of Makati were once subject to the pre-Hispanic Kingdom of Namayan, whose capital is now in the Santa Ana district of Manila.
Parts of Makati became a visita of the then-town of Santa Ana de Sapa in 1578, during the Spanish colonial era. In 1589, Captain Pedro de Brito, then an aide to the Spanish Army chief of staff, purchased a land encompassing the present-day Poblacion with a public bid of 1,400 pesos, and established his encomienda named "Hacienda Pedro". In 1608, he and his wife Ana de Herrera donated half of land to the Jesuits, with the condition of building a church in honor of his namesake, Saint Peter the Apostle, and endowed 14,000 pesos for its construction. The church, later known as San Pedro Macati Church, was completed in 1620.
While under the jurisdiction of the Franciscan friars during the 17th century, it was established as a town on June 1, 1670, under the name San Pedro de Macati out of Santa Ana de Sapa. The nearby Nuestra Señora de Gracia Church, changed into the "Our Lady of Guadalupe" church, welcomed an image of the Virgin Mary and devotees from Mexico, and one person from a family in Makati, the Montes De Oca family, who according to Rafael Bernal says had come from Mexico themselves, this family had produced Isidoro Montes de Oca, who became pivotal in the Mexican War of Independence against Spain. This parish had a large spiritual jurisdiction in the province of Tondo (later known as Manila), extending up to Muntinlupa.
In 1851, Don José Bonifacio Róxas, an ancestor of the Zóbel de Ayala family, purchased the estate from the Jesuits for 52,800 pesos and named it "Hacienda San Pedro de Macati". Since then, the development of Makati has remained linked with the family and their publicly listed company, Ayala Corporation. In 1890, San Pedro de Macati was proclaimed as a public town of Manila province. During this period, aside from the poblacion, the town had four outer barrios: Guadalupe, Olympia, Tejeros, and Culi-Culi.
In 1901, San Pedro Macati was incorporated into the newly established province of Rizal. On February 28, 1914, the name of the town was shortened to its present name of Makati, under Philippine Legislature Act No. 2390.
In 1934, Makati had grown to 14 barangays according to the Rizal provincial directory, namely: Poblacion, Comandante Carmona, Culiculi, Guadalupe, Fort McKinley, Malapadnabato (present-day West Rembo), Masilang (present-day South Cembo), Kasilawan, Olimpia (Olympia), Palanan, Pinagkaisajan (Pinagkaisahan), Rural, Sampalukan, and Tejeros. The villages of Fort McKinley, Malapadnabato, and Masilang were previously parts of Pateros.
On January 1, 1942, Makati was one of the municipalities of Rizal merged alongside Manila and Quezon City to form the City of Greater Manila as an emergency measure by President Manuel L. Quezon. The Fort McKinley military reservation, however, was explicitly excluded from Greater Manila; it was renamed as Sakura Heiyei by Japanese forces. Makati regained its pre-war status as a municipality of Rizal when the City of Greater Manila was dissolved by President Sergio Osmeña effective August 1, 1945.
After the destruction that the Second World War brought upon Manila, and the subsequent closure of Nielson Field, the town grew rapidly, and real estate values boomed. The first of the planned communities (in what are now the barangays Forbes Park, Urdaneta, San Lorenzo, and Bel-Air established during those times) were established in the 1950s with the efforts of its landowner, Ayala y Compañía. At the same time, Fort McKinley, then renamed Fort Bonifacio, and the then Philippine Army headquarters, became the starting point for the building up of seven more communities by military families who worked in the base area. New office buildings were built on what is now the Makati Central Business District (CBD). Since the late 1960s, Makati has transformed into the financial and commercial capital of the country. During this period, several barrios were converted into new independent barangays, while additional barangays were established by subdividing existing villages. In December 1972, two barrios (later barangay) of Makati were established at the Inner Fort Bonifacio area: Post Proper Northside and Post Proper Southside.
On November 7, 1975, Makati was separated from Rizal province to become part of the National Capital Region as a component municipality.
The beginning months of the 1970s marked a period of turmoil and change in the Philippines, particularly for the areas near the capital. A sudden glut of debt driven public works projects in the late 1960s led the Philippine economy to a sudden downward turn known as the 1969 Philippine balance of payments crisis, which in turn led to a period of economic difficulty and social unrest. With only a year left in his last constitutionally allowed term as president Ferdinand Marcos placed the Philippines under Martial Law in September 1972 and thus retained the position for fourteen more years. This period in Philippine history is remembered for the Marcos administration's record of human rights abuses, particularly targeting political opponents, student activists, journalists, religious workers, farmers, and others who fought against the Marcos dictatorship.
Makati was the setting of what is believed to be the single biggest case of involuntary disappearance during martial law – the case of the "Southern Tagalog 10" – ten activists from the nearby Southern Tagalog region, mostly in their twenties, who were abducted in late July 1977 at the Makati Medical Center.
Following the assassination of opposition senator Benigno Aquino Jr. on August 21, 1983, Makati became a nexus for protests against the dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos. Known as the Confetti Revolution, the demonstrations held in the central business district were led partly by employees of major corporations based in the area, culminating in the 1986 People Power Revolution that toppled Marcos' 20-year authoritarian regime. His political rival and successor, Corazon Aquino–the wife of the deceased senator Aquino–became the eleventh and first female president of the Philippines. After Mayor Nemesio Yabut succumbed to an illness on February 25, 1986, coinciding with the last day of the People Power Revolution, Aquino appointed Jejomar Binay as acting mayor of Makati two days later; he was subsequently elected as mayor in 1988.
In January 1986, by virtue of Presidential Proclamation No. 2475, s. 1986, the Fort Bonifacio Military Reservation, including the Embo barangays of Cembo, South Cembo, West Rembo, East Rembo, Comembo, Pembo and Pitogo were declared as part of Makati. The proclamation was contested by Taguig because it altered the municipality's boundaries unconstitutionally, which resulted in a three-decade long territorial dispute.
During the 1989 Philippine coup attempt, the Makati central business district was occupied by Reform the Armed Forces Movement forces seeking to overthrow President Corazon Aquino. The resulting standoff lasted from December 2 to 9 and contributed to massive financial losses incurred due to the paralysis in the economic hub.
On January 2, 1995, President Fidel V. Ramos signed Republic Act No. 7854, making Makati the seventh city in Metro Manila. The law was approved by a plebiscite one month later, on February 2, 1995, by majority of voters.
On May 17, 2000, at 5:02 p.m. PHT, Glorietta in Ayala Center was bombed, injuring 13 people. According to local authorities, the homemade bomb originated from the restroom of a restaurant and affected an adjacent video arcade. The bombing was believed to be the precursor of the May 21, 2000 SM Megamall bombing and the Rizal Day bombings. Another explosion occurred in the shopping mall complex on October 19, 2007, when a portion of Glorietta 2 exploded, killing 11 people and injuring more than a hundred. Initially, authorities said that it was caused by a liquefied petroleum gas explosion at a restaurant, but later began investigating the possibility that the explosion may have been a C-4 bomb.
In July 2003, about 300 defectors of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, known as the Magdalo Group, led by Army Capt. Gerardo Gambala and Navy Lt. Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes IV seized and occupied Oakwood Premier in Glorietta for 20 hours in what became known as the Oakwood mutiny. It is the first mutiny led by Trillanes against the Arroyo administration. The group attempted another unsuccessful rebellion in 2007 which became known as the Manila Peninsula siege.
In January 2011, a bus in Makati was bombed by Abu Sayyaf, killing five. In 2018, the Philippine Stock Exchange left its trading floor in Makati and moved to its new headquarters at the Philippine Stock Exchange Tower in Taguig.
In 2014, former Vice President Jejomar Binay and his son, former Makati Mayor Junjun Binay were involved in a graft case over the construction of the Makati Science High School Building in Cembo. The building was indicated to have cost ₱1.3 billion (US$22.5 million) or ₱72,500 per square meter, when it should have only been worth ₱470 million (US$9.2 million) or ₱25,620 per square meter. In December 2024, however, the Sandiganbayan granted the demurrer and acquitted all the accused, including the Binays, in the case.
In April 2022, Makati lost in the three decades-long territorial dispute with Taguig, which was ruled with finality a year later in April 2023. The city was ordered to refrain from exercising jurisdiction over the ten Embo barangays, which were reintegrated to Taguig. Makati lost an estimated 300,000 people from its population following the loss of the Embo barangays. The city also lost its boundaries with Pasig and Pateros, while the city borders of Taguig were extended up to Mandaluyong. In May 2025, the court ordered Makati to cease obstructing Taguig's access to and exclusive full possession of public properties in the Embo barangays covered by Proclamation Nos. 518 and 1916. The order include health centers, multi-purpose buildings, covered courts, parks and other government properties. Taguig reopened the facilities after their takeover and the court granted Taguig's prayer for preliminary injunction, which effectively retains Taguig's possession of the facilities for the continued public services for the Embo barangays.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Makati”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.