Makati City
An airport runway transformed by the Ayala family into the 'Wall Street of the Philippines' since the 1950s, now the country's second-largest economy with the highest per capita GDP.
Makati was built on an airport runway by a single family. In 1851, Don José Bonifacio Roxas of the Ayala-Roxas clan purchased Hacienda San Pedro de Macati from the Jesuits for 52,800 pesos. The estate remained agricultural until Nielson Field—Luzon's first airport—opened in 1938 on what is now Ayala Triangle. Philippine Airlines began operations there in 1941. When the airport closed in 1948, Colonel Joseph McMicking, Alfonso Zobel de Ayala, and Colonel Jaime Velasquez began transforming runways into a central business district based on American town planning principles.
Ayala Avenue, completed in 1958, was once the airport runway. The Makati Stock Exchange opened in 1963 (merging with Manila Stock Exchange to form PSE in 1992). By the late 1960s, Makati had become the Philippines' financial capital. Gated communities—Urdaneta, San Lorenzo, Bel-Air—grew into commercial districts. The 'Wall Street of the Philippines' title stuck as banks, multinationals, and embassies clustered along the avenue. BPO companies followed.
Today Makati is the Philippines' second-largest economy at ₱1.2 trillion (5.4% of national GDP in 2024), with the highest per capita GDP in the country at ₱1,778,000 ($32,000). Its 432 high-rises constitute the nation's largest skyline, 138 exceeding 100 meters. The 309,770 population (2024) understates daytime workers who commute into the CBD. Bank of the Philippine Islands is building new headquarters; Mandarin Oriental opens in 2026.
A 2022 territorial ruling transferred ten Embo barangays to Taguig, costing Makati roughly 300,000 residents and triggering ongoing legal disputes. The city that one family built from swampland and runway now faces questions about boundaries—but not about centrality. Finance, diplomacy, and BPO remain anchored to the asphalt where planes once landed.