EMONG'S JOURNALS

Remember the sheer exhaustion of hauling your thick holiday sweaters and heavy luggage all the way across Metro Manila just to catch a freezing-cold midnight bus to Baguio? If your ultimate holiday nightmare involves navigating monstrous cross-town traffic to reach the usual terminals in Cubao or Pasay, exhale. A brand-new transport game-changer has just landed dead-center in Makati, making your much-needed mountain retreat smoother, faster, and wonderfully hassle-free just in time for the Christmas rush. Let’s be honest: as soon as the Metro Manila air drops a fraction of a degree and the malls start playing Jose Mari Chan, every single one of us gets an uncontrollable itch for strawberry taho, pine trees, and that crisp, sweater-weather chill. Baguio is practically calling our names. ​The catch? Getting there usually meant orchestrating a logistical masterpiece. You’d have to survive the punishing crawl of EDSA just to camp out at a ...

Great news for beep™ card holders! Embrace a world of exclusive shopping and dining rewards at One Ayala Mall, Makati City. Just by presenting your beep™ card, you unlock access to an array of irresistible deals across select restaurants and boutiques. Exclusive Rewards Await you at One Ayala Mall! Dive into a rewarding experience with your beep™ card at these participating outlets, exclusive to One Ayala Mall branch: Auntie Anne’s (Level 2) – Savor any 3 stixs and the least expensive one is on us! Pancake House (Upper Ground) – Enjoy a refreshing buy 1 get 1 free iced tea offer. Manduca Taberna (Upper Ground) – Choose between a complimentary iced tea or a slice of our decadent Manchego cheesecake. Tiger Sugar (Second Level) – Purchase any meal or beverage at regular price to receive a FREE wintermelon boba or pearl/wintermelon passion with jelly ball. Alberto (Third Level) – Treat yoursel...

When you plan your trip from Makati City to Taguig and vice versa, one of the problems you will have to face will be to figure out the best way to get around the two cities. Although there are many fast and modern options to rely on like getting a Grab ride, most commuters choose to ride a more viable alternative - buses. Presenting the Comet electric buses. These eco-friendly transport vehicles now have a new commuter route from San Lorenzo Place Mall to McKinley Hill and vice versa starting June 5, 2023. For your easy reference, San Lorenzo Place Mall is located at EDSA corner Chino Roces Avenue in Makati City, while McKinley Hill is at Florence Way Street in Taguig City. Here's how you can get a ride on the CityLink Comet electric buses GETPASS app Follow this step-by-step guide to avail this service: 1. Download the GETPASS app.  2. Create an account, then log in.  3. Join the organization: Citylink.  4. Generate...

Makati Mayor Abby Binay today said the city government has partnered with the Department of Tourism for the first-ever "Hop On, Hop Off" (HOHO) bus tours to promote the city's heritage sites, museums, and lifestyle centers. Mayor Abby said Makati was chosen as the pilot site for DOT's HOHO bus tour, a tourism recovery program that promotes Metro Manila through a modern bus system and a mobile app. It offers seamless and contactless travel options, allowing tourists to explore strategic hubs easily. "Makati City boasts a rich tapestry of history, art, and natural beauty that deserves to be celebrated. With the launch of the HOHO bus tour, we aim to bring this exceptional experience to the forefront, allowing visitors to immerse themselves in our city's unique heritage and experience the diverse offerings that Makati has to offer," she said. Mayor Abby said the HOHO bus tour in Makati, which operates Wednesday to Frid...

The One Ayala PUV Terminal is now officially open to all commuters. All routes were transferred from Park Square, except for the PUJ Pasay Libertad.  Located at the Lower Ground Level, the new transport terminal completes the One Ayala intermodal transport hub, including a bridge to MRT Ayala Station on the Second Level and Bus Terminal on Upper Ground Level. The PUV Terminal is open from 5am to 10pm daily. Here is a list of PUV and UV Express routes at One Ayala: PUV routes Makati Loop – Landmark Pateros Zapote – Circuit UV Express routes Antipolo Bicutan BF EI Grande – Parañaque BF Resort – Las Piñas FTI – Palar Arca South Marikina Molino via Coastal Road – Ligas Molino via Skyway Pacita – Biñan Pasig via Kalayaan Pulang Lupa – Las Piñas Russia – Moonwalk Suki Market – Mayon Sucat Evacom – Parañaque The District Imus ANY THOUGHTS? Share your ideas by commenting. This post originally ...

Who hasn’t dreamed of working in Makati City at some point in their professional career? The country’s premier city certainly ticks all the right boxes when it comes to an ideal workplace. Accessible by both public and private transportation to and from points in Metro Manila, Makati is home to a host of well-established banks, BPOs, multinational corporations, five-star hotels, world-class shopping malls, and international embassies. Even the esteemed center of commerce, Ayala Avenue, is located at the heart of Makati’s CBD, as are many of the country’s most iconic edifices. But the city is also constantly evolving, and the addition of spanking-new mixed-used developments as well as ultramodern skyscrapers to the Makati skyline means the city is very much alive and rife with business. Such a vibrant atmosphere is matched by a dynamic nightlife scene that indulges your every mood and fancy. Be it coffee and conversation with friends or cocktails...

Holiday festivities are now in full swing. From safe al fresco dining with unique food concepts to lots of refreshing outdoor spaces and enchanting Christmas decors, the Rada Promenade is geared up to give you lots of fun things to enjoy with your loved ones. As the famous saying goes, “Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week”. Indeed, Sunday is the most suitable day to refresh after a life-sucking week has passed. Be it a day to just let loose and relax, stay at the comforts of your own home OR do the opposite; go out, put on your best sneakers, try something out of the blue, get a taste of new flavors and explore places. What’s good? You don’t have to look far and wide just to experience this ’cause Makati offers this kind of thingamajig. The new Rada Promenade offers more al fresco dining spaces for those who wish to enjoy a great meal with good ambiance and music. Street parking along Rada was replaced by permane...

A video of a foreigner berating a police officer inside a posh village in Makati City opens a debate whether or not a PNP personnel can effect a warrantless arrest inside a private property or a home. Here's a back story. In a report from PNA , the Makati police said that around 5:04 p.m., Senior Master Sergeant Roland Von Madrona along with village watchman Esteban Gaan of Barangay Dasmarinas, conducted patrol inside the Dasmariñas Village upon the request of Chairwoman Rosana Hwang. At around 5:45 p.m., the duo chanced upon a housemaid, identified as Cherilyn Escalante, watering plants outside their residence without wearing a face mask, which is mandatory under the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) guidelines. The police said Madrona then approached Escalante and advised her to wear a face mask for her safety. A minute after getting inside the house to get her face mask, house owners Javier Parra and his wife Abegail Salvador came out and argued with the po...

Yesterday was a tough commute. Stuck on Edsa for what felt like forever due to countless Payday Friday mall sales, and moronic drivers swerving left and right like snakes in the wild. So this leads me to shout, "This could be my worst traffic experience!" It was horrible! The day practically stood still. Prologue I don't go to Makati City that often. I'm the type that worries about the lack of parking spaces and in there you can't always just like pull over and park. But what can I do? I have a very pressing commitment and I have to be there. And there's the dreaded Edsa traffic jam. To the uninitiated, Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue (Edsa) and Makati City has the most epic road dramas. You’re forced to leave house when the sky is still on the dark side (say, 4.30am) to reach your office that seems so far, far away. Exit from your house any later and it's a trap – meet the hundreds of thousands of irate drivers who’ll always want to axe your hea...

The fourth edition of Art Fair Philippines happens from February 18 to 21, 2016 at The Link Carpark in Makati. Carrying the theme, “World’s window to Philippine art.” the exhibit will have 40 participating galleries spread across an area space of 6,374 square meters. Among these galleries are: 1335 Mabini, Altro Mondo Arte Contemporanea, Archivo 1984 Gallery, Arndt, Art Cube Artesan Gallery + Studio, ArtInformal, Art Verite Gallery, Avellana Art Gallery, Blanc, Boston Art Gallery, CANVAS, Edouard Malingue Gallery, Equator Art Projects, Finale Art File, Gajah Gallery, Galeria Cayon, Galleria Duemila, Galerie Michael Janssen, Galerie Stephanie, Galerie Anna, Gallery Kogure, Gallery Orange, J Studio, MO_Space, Nunu Fine Art, PABLO< Paseo Art Gallery, Pinto Art Gallery, Salcedo Private View, Secret Fresh, Silverlens, TAKSU Gallery, The Crucible, The Drawing Room, Tin-Aw Art Gallery, Vinyl on Vinyl, west Gallery, Yavuz Gallery, and YOD Gallery. Brisbane-based Filipino artists, Al...

The son of basketball superstar and former senator Robert Jaworski was hurt after an encounter with police authorities in Makati City early Saturday. According to a report from Inquirer.net , Senior Supt. Ernesto Barlam, Makati chief of police, confirmed that Ryan Joseph Jaworski, 40, of Quezon City, is currently confined at Makati Medical Center (as of this post) after sustaining injuries reportedly in the leg. Initial reports disclosed that prior to the incident, Jaworski and his two friends Joselito Au of Cainta, Rizal, and Ferdinand Parago were on board a maroon Nissan Sentra, with plate number WNE-425, when they reportedly noticed vehicles trailing them and fired at them at the corner of Chino Roces and Pasay Road. The vehicles, being driven by police operatives, fired back; but Jaworski and his companions were able to escape. Follow-up operations conducted by the police led them to the Makati Medical Center where Jaworski was having himself treated for a gunsho...

A great work of art requires a lot of extraordinary spunk. Call it courage and fearlessness, but one has to possess great intrepidity to stand out among the rest. Happening on March 19 to 31, 2015 is CJ Tañedo's "A Thousand Last Chances" art exhibit at ArtistSpace Ayala Museum, Makati Ave. cor. De la Rosa St., Greenbelt Park, Makati City. In his exhibit, CJ Tañedo will be featuring several of his new conquests in the field of contemporary arts, deviating from the usual oil paintings and venturing into the 3-dimensional world of realism and glass canvasses. I'm not really a master art connoisseur... just a sucker for new and bold stuff. I train my sights into the fresh and the pristine. Not only does it makes me feel young again, but it gives me a spotless perspective of life. CJ Tañedo has that extraordinary spunk. Call it courageous and fearless, but one has to possess great intrepidity to stand out among the rest. I'm dropping by the Ayala Museum ...