NEMESIO I . YABUT
Nemesio Isip Yabut was born on December 19, 1925, in Fort
William McKinley, Makati. He was the fourth of five children that
sprung out of the union of Fabian Yabut, a soldier in the Philippine
Scouts, U.S. Army, and Irene Isip, a comely lass who lived near
the Fort. As the son of a soldier, “Mesio” had his early schooling at
the Fort McKinley Elementary School, a school established by the
Americans for U.S. Army dependents. When his father died,
Mesio, who was then ten years old, moved to Guadalupe
Elementary School and later to Pasig Catholic School for his high
school.
Possed a good athletic build, he joined the Makati Police force as a sergeant and enrolled at the
National University tuition-free. Working by day and studying at night presented no handicap to
Yabut's police career, he rose to become a lieutenant and eventually headed the Detective
Bureau. He gained many citations, one of them for solving the Colgate Palmolive robbery in
1951 which initially baffled investigators for the seeming lack of clues, leading police observers
to tag it as the “perfect crime”.
His philanthropic activities ranged far and wide, but the biggest beneficiaries were the poor
people of Makati, of which he was one but a few years ago. Yabut also built in 1967 the Parish
Church of Guadalupe Nuevo, his own barrio, at a cost of P 250,000. He also caused several
chapels to be constructed in the different barrios of Makati. Moreover, he instituted a scholarship
program for Makati's deserving but indigent students. In recognition, the government gave him
an award in 1969 for being one of the Most Outstanding Philanthropists in the Philippines.
The mayor-elect of Makati is no stranger to success. But, like the town of Makati whose history
is strikingly parallel to his own life story, Yabut comes from
humble origins. Through sheer hard work and stick-to-itiveness, he had earned a prominent and respected place in the
Philippine Business firmament before he entered politics.
GEN. PIO DEL PILAR
Pio Isidro, like his father, is an unschooled farmer and teniente
del barrio of Culi-Culi, an outlying district of San Pedro
(Sanpiro) de Makati. He became one of the most celebrated
warriors of the Philippine Revolution of 1896 and our War with
America.The story of his life is very much like that of the
luminous Makati City he never saw. Like the Makati we know
now, Heneral Pio was tough and formidable, conflicted and
made of many parts, of humble beginnings but amazingly successful, brilliant but also flawed.
He’s the perfect hero for Makati.
Born in 1865 (or 1860) in Culi-Culi, Pio was a tall, attractive mesticillo, as they called quadroons
then, his mother being a Spanish mestiza of the middle-class Castañeda family. He claimed he
had been too poor to acquire a diploma from a colegio, and he knew neither Spanish nor English,
being literate only in his native Tagalog. He was a typical Batang Makati, growing up around the
stone church at Guadalupe and the Spanish Casa hacienda. To avoid further grief from the
Spaniards, his father, Isaac Isidro, changed the family name to del Pilar, an unwise choice since
that name would soon sow trouble from the famous dissidents Marcelo H. and the soldierly
Gregorio.
In his twenties, Pio was elected teniente of Culi-Culi and fell into the company of a filibustero
(the name for rebel). He met Rizal at a meeting and was so inspired, that he began to distribute
his forbidden novel Noli Me Tangere. arrive at our archipelago. Pio chose the Katipunan name of
Pang-Una (Leader), and became the secretary of the Makati chapter of the Katipunan. As
secretary of Magtagumpay (Victorious), the Makati chapter Pio led about a thousand men in the
latter stage of the first battle in San Juan in August 1896. They took part in the barely
remembered battles fought under Bonifacio around what is now Metro Manila, and the
subsequent move to Cavite under Aguinaldo. They did not join the Magdalo as refugees,
however, but as a valuable fighting unit of Manileños (Makati was then considered part of
Manila). Several contradictory documents exist about Pio del Pilar’s continuing anti-American
activities after his return to Manila in November 1902. Heneral Pio never returned to Makati, but
upon his release from exile in Guam, went to live in Pasay, where he died on June 21, 1931.
The government marker on his statue at Paseo de Roxas and Makati Avenue calls him the Hero
of Makati. He must have glimpsed the grandeur of Makati City today, only through his tears as
he dreamed of the freedom, progress, and prosperity of the country
he had loved so well.
JEJOMAR BINAY
Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay has shot to prominence as one of the
most divisive yet popular figures in Philippine politics, possibly
the embodiment of a city leader who can inspire the masses and irk
the national political establishment. As well as a hard-earned
reputation for sound city management, he can point to a leading
role in restoring democracy to the Philippines after two decades of
dictatorship. In 2006 he was included among the top ten mayors in the annual World Mayor
project.
The hardworking mayor has seen off numerous crises, attacks, and even term limits during his
almost 20-year stint since taking charge of Manila's financial district. As with all awkward yet
popular city leaders, he is frequently spoken of as a possible candidate for the presidency.
Binay was installed as the officer in charge of the City of Makati under the transitional
government of Cory Aquino, before securing three more terms as mayor, the only impediment to
a fourth term coming in the form of term limits in 1998 (where his wife temporarily replaced
him).
It is his stewardship of the city he found in near-bankruptcy that earned him his reputation as a
financially sound innovator in city governance, emerging as the most prominent mayor in the
Philippines during this period as a result. Since overcoming the budget deficits he inherited on
becoming mayor, as well as overseeing the upgrading of the city to a higher tier authority, Binay
has transformed Makati into the country's leading municipality for e-governance, heralding the
council's work towards paperless transactions.
While Binay can rightly point to an inspiring track record as both a campaigner for democracy
and a champion of the city's poor, there are those who claim the mayor operates as an autocrat
and hides behind his populist rhetoric to disguise his machine-like grip on the city's politics, as
evidenced by his virtually uninterrupted two decades in office (the only interregnum coming in
the form of his wife during a term-limited stint out of office).