Manila is made up of 9 to 12 cities, pardon me for not knowing the exact number. Only one small city is called Old Manila. Some of the others are Makati, Passig, Passay City, Taguig, Parañanque, Mandaluyong. Monday was spent at Makati City Hall. This is an impressive 23+ story building. I met a Past District Governor who is in charge of International relations for the city. Basically it was his job to convince companies that Makati was the place to locate their international operations, like call centers. Makati is the business center of Manila and the Philippines and has a very prestigious reputation. I also toured the 168 emergency dispatch center (the same as our 911). They replayed a motorcycle accident they recorded from earlier that morning. Their monitor system was impressive.
After that I met up with Ben Giovine and we had a very interesting series of meetings. First we met Dr. Elenita Binay, who was a former mayor of Makati and wife of the current mayor. Shortly afterwards we met Congresswomen Abigail Binay, Dr. Binay’s daughter. Dr. Binay then invited us to lunch at Chef Jessie and she and Ben discussed politics. As we finish lunch the Dr. Binay's son, Jun Jun Binay, joined us. He is running for mayor of Makati as his father is ineligible to run again. Oh, and did I mention that Dr. Binay's husband is running for Vice President of the Philippines. My host for the day was “Papa” Tony Cristobal. It turns out there was a problem with the ride back to Alabang, where I am now staying, and so he offered to take me there since he lives not too far away. We stopped at an apartment on the 37th floor of an apartment building that his parents are trying to rent. What a view from up there. What a spacious apartment. We then dropped his parents off in Parañanque and went on to Alabang. On the way we stopped at the Palms Country Club for a small meal. We went to the Japanese Restaurant and had Sukiyaki soup and a spicy tuna sashimi. All very nice.
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