MAGAZINE FOR CEBU PACIFIC • MARCH 2016 IT'S A BIRTHDAY BLOWOUT! OUR IS COMPLIMENTARY • MARCH 2016 • MARCH IS COMPLIMENTARY We're really Fonda Jane Retro in the Metro THE HOLLYWOOD LEGEND VINTAGE CULTURE GIVES SMILE OUR BEST FINDS A FOOTHOLD IN INTERVIEW YET BOOMTOWN MANILA 000 COVER(JE) + Spine8.2mm R1.indd 1 15/2/16 8:26 AM CAPITAL GAINS Metro Manila's moment The view from the ramparts of Intramuros takes in the golf course, pre-war administrative buildings and parts of the city’s modern skyline LESTER LEDESMA BY PHOTO 66 SMILE • MARCH 2016 066-072 R1 FEATURE 1 MANILA.TS(JE).indd 66 15/2/16 2:57 PM CAPITAL GAINS LONG PERCEIVED AS TOO UNWIELDY AND CROWDED, THE PHILIPPINES’ CAPITAL IS SUDDENLY BACK ON MUST-VISIT LISTS EVEN AS IT STRUGGLES TO FIND A SUSTAINABLE SHAPE AS A REGIONAL HUB. A WEEKEND AS A TOURIST IN HIS OWN HOMETOWN SHOWS MICHAEL AQUINO WHAT THE BUZZ IS ALL ABOUT, AND TALKS TO EXPERTS ON HOW THE SPRAWL CAN BE REINED IN TO GIVE IT EVEN WIDER APPEAL 9.06pm, Friday. A 7-Eleven in the middle barfl y. “You wait to get seated, or if it’s full, of Bonifacio Global City seems a poor choice they won’t let you in.” for an evening date, but that’s where I fi nd The barkeep, sporting a bulletproof vest, myself with my wife. The security guard mixes the wife a Mariang Bastos: Philippine silently ushers us into the storeroom, where Don Papa Rum blended with orgeat syrup, an inner door opens to reveal a massive neo- Cointreau, citrus mix and island bitters. Gothic space. A long bar and a shelf stacked With a theatrical fl ourish, he splashes on ceiling-high with liquor bottles line one half a jigger of overproof Demerara rum, wall; a series of arches with a projection of a lights it up and garnishes the lot with Banksy artwork graces the other. powdered cinnamon, the grains producing Bank Bar is one of Manila’s most popular momentary sparks as they hit the fl ame. speakeasies, though it would be invisible to Manila, Tiongco explains, has gone crazy passersby who haven’t heard of it through for speakeasies. “Eventually, it won’t be the grapevine. “There’s a sense of exclusivity a secret anymore,” Gene says, relishing and mystery,” explains my inside man Gene the irony of such a clandestine concept Tiongco, a plastic surgeon and inveterate appealing to the local hunger for the hip, hot 67 SMILE • MARCH 2016 066-072 R1 FEATURE 1 MANILA.TS(JE).indd 67 15/2/16 2:57 PM CAPITAL GAINS Scenes from around Bonifacio Global City, with its modern public art and hidden, trendy bars like Bank Bar PHOTOS BY TAMMY DAVID; LESTER LEDESMA DAVID; TAMMY BY PHOTOS 68 SMILE • MARCH 2016 066-072 R1 FEATURE 1 MANILA.TS(JE).indd 68 15/2/16 2:58 PM and new. “You know us… Pinoys are of tour company Old Manila Walks, suckers for validation.” tells me. “Look at Poblacion — wasn’t With rosy investment-grade credit it locals who patronized [popular WHERE TO GO ratings and a projected average growth restaurant] El Chupacabra fi rst? Now rate of 6.2% for the next three years, the we have all the beautiful and good- BANK BAR Philippines and its capital are getting smelling people of the Metro suddenly G/F, RCBC Savings Bank long-overdue attention from overseas eating outdoors in Poblacion! It’s now Corporate Center, 25th St, observers. Anthony Bourdain fl ew hip enough for tourists to come, diba?” Bonifacio Global City, Taguig in to gorge on Jollibee’s Chickenjoy; Poblacion seems to have displaced City, +63 2 544 5776 Madonna dedicated two nights of her Malate as Manila’s new backpacker 2016 tour to Manila; and world leaders district, its hostels and bars working SHANGRI-LA AT THE like Barack Obama, Xi Jinping and in tandem with its proximity to the FORT Justin Trudeau held up the traffi c for Makati central business district to 30th St cor 5th Ave, Bonifacio APEC. We “suckers for validation” create a buzzing tourist hotspot. Global City, Taguig City, +63 have found it here lately in spades. And yet Man Dy fi nds Poblacion 2 820 0888; shangri-la.com “Manila has changed a lot since my somewhat problematic, compared to last visit — great changes, of course,” his home district of Binondo, Manila’s THE MANILA HOTEL marvels John Rice, general manager Chinatown. Bonifacio Dr, Ermita, of the new Shangri-La at the Fort in “From [Binondo’s] Ramada hotel +63 2 527 0011; manila- the heart of Bonifacio Global City, to Intramuros is 15 minutes, to hotel.com.ph where the world’s top luxury brands National Museum is 25,” he says. now hawk their wares from upmarket “Groceries, restaurants, a mall, a PINEAPPLE LAB storefronts on Bonifacio High Street. bank, ATMs, hospital — they’re all 6071 Palma St, Makati “It’s become a hub for international nearby!” Poblacion, on the other hand, City, +63 998 957 1051; business, and more global companies is “far from popular tourist sites like pineapplelab.ph want to come in and invest. The food Intramuros, Luneta and the National and art communities are especially Museum,” Man Dy explains. “When RAMADA MANILA spectacular, with the exploration and we travel, don’t we look for areas CENTRAL integration of diff erent cuisines and accessible to major sites? Think of Quintin Paredes St, Binondo, the painting of murals everywhere.” Khao San Road near the Grand Palace +63 2 588 6688; ramada.com Manila’s moment in the sun is in Bangkok, for example.” good news to Rice, an old hand in This explains why tour companies OLD MANILA WALKS the Philippines who fi rst arrived as fi nd Manila such a chore to explore. +63 2 711 3823; general manager of EDSA Shangri- “Everything’s so spaced out, but city oldmanilawalks.com La in 2006. “Manila always had the tours last only half a day!” Man Dy potential to become a world city,” Rice exclaims. NATIONAL MUSEUM says, “because I think it has its own Manila’s sprawl is a postwar OF THE PHILIPPINES distinctive personality.” problem. Its name used to refer only to P. Burgos Dr, Rizal Park, +63 2 the 38km2 city that held the capital’s 527 1215; nationalmuseum. 8.41pm, Saturday. My wife and I most historic districts (“Old” Manila). gov.ph catch an evening one-man show at “In the old days, everything was Poblacion, Makati’s Pineapple Lab measured from Plaza Goiti [in Old THE INTRAMUROS gallery. It’s packed to the rafters — Manila], which was the old downtown ADMINISTRATION and judging by the blonde ’dos and and business center,” explains historian General Luna St, Intramuros, varied accents, a good many visitors and urban planner Paulo Alcazaren, +63 2 527 3155; intramuros. aren’t from around here. Poblacion’s founder of PGAA Creative Design. gov.ph bohemian reputation is catching; the “Your trips were gauged by the distance tourists in the exhibit hall have simply and time it took to get to Plaza Goiti VIVA MANILA followed the locals’ cue. from whatever suburb you lived in.” +63 920 909 2021; “Tourism hotspots in the Metro Post-World War II, the city vivamanila.org become ‘hot’ when locals make them joined those suburbs to form a vast hip and hot,” Ivan Man Dy, proprietor agglomeration of 16 cities and one 69 SMILE • MARCH 2016 069 R2 FEATURE 1 MANILA.TS(JE).indd 69 15/2/16 5:48 PM CAPITAL GAINS The colorful personalities in Manila include popular guide and cultural commentator Ivan Man Dy (second row, left) - PHOTOS BY LESTER LEDESMA BY PHOTOS 71 SMILE • MARCH 2016 066-072 R1 FEATURE 1 MANILA.TS(JE).indd 71 15/2/16 2:59 PM CAPITAL GAINS Old buildings give the city of Manila a distinctive character, and fi nd new life with new tenants; a school marching band on photo break municipality covering more than automobiles, even Intramuros’ cobbled what the city can be”, as Nebrija puts it, 630km2 — what we now call “Metro” lanes become a delight to visit as they and she says the impact they’re making Manila, the world’s fourth most reclaim their original purpose. has been felt all across the Metro and populous urban center behind Tokyo- Viva Manila’s Intramuros Pasyal beyond. “From the fi rst Pasyal to the Yokohama, Jakarta and New Delhi. The event proves this by transforming last one, we saw people coming in from old central structure of the metropolis General Luna Street into a car-free, farther away — not just people who has since given way to what Alcazaren all-pedestrian street carnival. The wife live in Manila or care about Manila, calls a “free-for-all”, with new town and I are watching a street performer but people who are looking for cultural centers supplanting the old. The center blow human-sized bubbles as we wait things to do in the city.” of gravity has shifted from Plaza Goiti in line for a scoop of Sebastian’s Ice There’s a solution to the near- to business districts like Makati, Cream. We got here on foot from our intractable riddle that is Metro Ortigas and Bonifacio Global City. staycation base, the venerable Manila Manila, and Nebrija and Man Dy “It’s the emergence of what’s called Hotel — once deemed “uncool” for might just have stumbled on it. Old a multi-centered city,” Alcazaren representing Filipino culture in its Manila isn’t the problem with the explains.