Barangay Forbes Park, Makati City

INTRODUCTION

Barangay Forbes Park, which was established in early 1940s, is one of the first villages to be developed by Ayala Corporation. It was named after an American Governor-General assigned in the Philippines – William Cameron Forbes.  It has a land area of 2.5 square kilometers with a population density of one (1) person per 1,000 square meters. Based on the 2010 Census of Population, Forbes Parks has 2,533 residents.

 

Purely residential in use, Forbes Park is considered as one of the oldest settlement in Makati and is renowned to be the home of the Philippines’ flushest families and well-known diplomats and expatriates business executives. Famous landmarks of Barangay Forbes Park include the following: Manila Golf Club, Manila Polo Club, Santuario de San Antonio Parish, San Antonio Plaza Arcade, Kasiyahan Homes, Manila Polo Townhouses, and the more than a hundred century old Acacia Trees.

 

 

HISTORY

The development of Forbes Park is credited to two scions of the Ayala Corporation namely Alfonso Zobel de Ayala, distinguished Spanish-Filipino patriarch and Joseph R. McMicking, an American businessman soldier. They provided the vision and energy behind the phenomenal growth and development of Makati. Through their corporate vehicle, Ayala y Compania (now Ayala Corporation) founded in 1814, the two industrialists built a modern mini city with no public sector aid, except for the cooperation of the Makati municipal administrators.

 

The destruction of southern Manila during the liberation by Allied Forces in 1915 created opportunities for developers who had land available for new housing. The fine residential areas in Ermita and Malate were reduced to rubble. Many old residents moved out in the late 1940's to the suburbs mainly to the new subdivisions in San Juan, Mandaluyong, and Quezon City. The original Hacienda de Makati of the Ayalas had been reduced in size by the pre-war parceling of the Singalong-San Andres subdivisions, the donation of South Cemetery and sale of lots around the old poblacion in Makati. Only 900 hectares were left of the sprawling grassy fields held by the Ayalas.

 

This is where Colonel McMicking's vision came in a modern multi-zone subcity to be built in steps over 25 years, each zone complementing and enhancing the value of the others. The skyline that sprang from Makati and near ordering of shopping centers and residential villages within its periphery became a revelation to everyone. It was a master stroke for McMicking and his fellow planners to first put up that part of the Hacienda that was distant and farthermost from the center of Manila. Forbes Park, as this segment was to be known established New Makati's first-class character.

 

Col. McMicking was inspired by the decorous Spanish Mission-style homes around Palo-Alto, south of San Francisco. They were comfortably girded by lawns and trees but were necessary opulent. In 1948, when Ayala broke ground in Makati, Forbes Park was about as far from Manila as anyone cared to live. Ayala persuaded the Manila Polo Club then in Pasay City, to sell its land and move to Makati. The Manila Golf Club agreed to move to Forbes Park for its old Caloocan site was no closer to Manila than Makati. The dunders felt it appropiate that the first Makati village be named after W. Cameron Forbes, the American Governor General who helped bring polo to the Philippines.

 

As the physical contours of the subdivision took shape, the first sale of Forbes lot (no. 2 Caimito Place) took place in January 1949. The buyer was John L. Manning and inscribed in his title (as in all Forbes land titles) deed restrictions binding for 30 years from January 1, 1949. The Ayala clan demonstrated their confidence in Forbes Park by being among the first to move in. The trickle later became a flood as word spread that Forbes realty was unbeatable. With proximity to Makati's growing business district, shops and cinema as magnet, the other Ayala residential villages opened up to strong demand - San Lorenzo (1952), Bel-Air (1954), Urdaneta (1957) Magallanes and Dasmariñas (1962).