Eugene Alvin Villar 🇵🇭

#Makati in 1942 and in 2024

Makati is a city in the #Philippines 🇵🇭 and is one of the 17 entities that compose the administrative region of Metro Manila. Until recently, Makati and its neighbor #Taguig, had a decades-long territorial dispute over the former American military base Fort William McKinley with the Supreme Court ruling in 2023 that the base’s territory belongs to Taguig.

If you’re curious, there’s a decent Wikipedia article about the dispute: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makati%E2%80%93Taguig_boundary_dispute

1/4

Makati–Taguig boundary dispute - Wikipedia

Jul 29, 2024 at 3:50pmWeb
Show threadEugene Alvin Villar 🇵🇭Jul 29, 2024

Anyway, I’d like to feature two maps of Makati (attached to the first post), one from 1942 and the other from 2024, giving us a clue to why the dispute was resolved the way it did.

The first map is cropped from the “Map of the City of Greater Manila” published by the Department of Engineering and Public Works just before Japan took over the capital after the start of WWII. As implied by the map, the area labeled “Fort William McKinley” is considered outside the area of “San Pedro Macati”.

2/4

Show threadEugene Alvin Villar 🇵🇭Jul 29, 2024

Regarding the weird border on the northwest, yes, Manila South Cemetery (the square-shaped area) is not part of Makati and was technically attached to Manila’s Santa Ana district (now in San Andres Bukid) via Vito Cruz Extension (now Pablo Ocampo St.). Manila’s jurisdiction supposedly even includes a portion of what is now South Avenue. But currently Manila only exercises jurisdiction over the cemetery itself, having de facto ceded jurisdiction of Pablo Ocampo and South Avenue to Makati.

3/4

Show threadEugene Alvin Villar 🇵🇭Jul 29, 2024

The second map is a current screenshot from #OpenStreetMap reflecting Makati’s territory following 2023 Supreme Court’s decision. So basically Makati has simply reverted back to its status quo ante, much to the dismay of the residents in the affected area, who had been enjoying Makati’s superb public services since it is one of the country’s wealthiest cities and the financial capital of the Philippines.

4/4