2/21/2024 0 Comments Bonifacio global city slums![]() ![]() Such sustained inequality has been the arch nemesis of the current administration under President Benigno Aquino III, whose political mantra has continuously aimed at repealing the country’s ignominious status as one of the most unequal nations in ASEAN. The stark reality for Marc and the other 20 to 35 per cent of Metro Manila that live in “informal settlements” is that the Philippines’ much-trumpeted economic boom has been within sight but out of grasp. A boy collects junk from a scrap yard, with the W Tower standing in the distance ![]() But today, Marc’s home is at the footsteps of the Philippines’ most tangible economic success story, brimming with all the ostentation of such splendor: He is about 600 meters from Manila’s trendiest new clubs, Valkyrie and the Palace Pool Club, an al fresco affair featuring two swimming pools – another 300 meters down 8 th Avenue is the Philippines’ first Lexus dealership. ![]() His answer strikes me as ironic: Just six years ago, BGC was mostly dusty lots with little more value than hand-me-down infrastructure built by the US military. There are not more jobs than before,” the man laments, looking out towards a horizon of skyscrapers, many completed and still more to come. Compared to residents of the BGC, where jeepnies are not allowed to drive, Marc might as well be in a different country. They’ll be dropped off by one of the belching jeepnies that endlessly blare down the cross street of Kalayaan. On this Saturday afternoon, Marc, a 31-year-old spaghetti sauce salesman, is waiting for friends to visit him. His neighborhood’s crumbling cranny – too narrow to be marked on maps too populated to be free of cars – empties out onto 8 th Avenue, a main thoroughfare into Bonifacio Global City (BGC), Manila’s high-end business enclave, home and posh playground to the Philippines’ wealthy elite. When Marc walks out of his Makati neighborhood, a cramped warren of squat slum dwellings in West Rembo, the view he sees could not be more contrasting to where he has just come from. An old man on Kalayaan Avenue smokes a cigarette, with buildings from Bonifacio Global City in the background. ![]()
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