MANILA -- Makati City is offering free daily walking tours that allow tourists and even long-time residents to discover hidden gems of the city and learn about its history and heritage beyond its famous malls.

The walking tours are part of the thrust of Makati Mayor Abby Binay to promote tourism in Makati, according to Maria Concepcion “Ichi” Yabut, head of Makati’s International Relations Department.

“I want them to discover that Makati is not just an urban jungle and it’s not only the financial capital of the Philippines. But also it’s a city full of culture and history and heritage,” Yabut told ABS-CBN News as she led a tour of Poblacion, the oldest part of Makati and known as the city’s old downtown.

Barangay Poblacion is home to Makati’s first church, the 400-year-old Saints Peter and Paul Church, that stands on land donated to the Jesuits by the Spanish alferez general captain Pedro de Brito and his wife. It was destroyed during the British occupation is 1762, was reconstructed in 1849, and has undergone numerous renovations.

It is home to the images of the Nuestra Señora de la Rosa and the Sto. Niño de Pasion. The front doors of the church are said to be 400-years old as well.

Long-time resident Malou Taguincar, who serves as the parish pastoral council coordinator, said that the tour will also show how Poblacion has kept the faith, adding, “Even in this era where technology, uso na ang media, lahat naka-social media, but we have kept our faithfulness through the presence of our patroness, Virgen dela Rosa, through her intercession.”

A leisurely walk down the hill called Buenavista leads to the riverside where a bas relief commemorating the landing of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi is found. It is said that the city’s name was derived from an expression made by the locals when the Spanish governor-general asked them about the name of the place during a visit to the settlement by the Pasig River.

“Makati na! Kumakatina,” the residents, who did not understand Legazpi, were supposed to have told the Spaniard, referring to the ebbing tide. The bas relief is a donation from the Makati Festivals Foundations, Inc.

The walk will also feature stops by the ancestral houses of the Coronado and Cu-unjieng families and some of the kalbaryos or chapels built around Poblacion during Holy Week that feature tableaus depicting Jesus’ passion and death. This is where devotees chant the pabasa. The devotion that started in the 1900s is unique to the city and is still practiced to this day.

The Museo ng Makati is rich in history itself. Built in the 1930s, it served as Makati’s first municipal hall and was also a school and clinic before it was converted to a museum during the time of Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay.

It is now a community museum that features Paete-made relief sculptures that depict the episodes in Makati’s history and scenes about the city’s cultural heritage.

“Not many people know about Makati’s history. They just know about Makati as a central business district, malls, shopping, finance. But there’s more to Makati than that and most of Makati’s history is centered in Poblacion,” said Dwayne Samarista, head of planning of Makati’s Cultural Office.

These sites in Poblacion will serve as stops of the soon-to-be offered walking tour of Poblacion’s heritage sites.

“Poblacion is an integral part of the tour because Poblacion is the place where Makati started,” Yabut said, pointing out that the city is celebrating its 350th year this year.

CBD TOUR

Currently, the city offers several tours that start at the Makati tourist information center found at the entrance of Glorietta 2.

A tour of the Central Business District will take visitors on a guided leisurely walk for one-and-a-half hours. Some of stops include Greenbelt Park where sculptures and several plant species can be found, the Sto. Niño de Paz Greenbelt chapel, and the corner of Ayala and Makati Avenue.

Tourists will be taken to the underpass for a stop at the monument of Gabriela Silang and the Nielson Tower of the old Manila international airport. It may be hard to imagine that planes once ran on the busy avenues that had actually served as runways. Tour guides Ferjh Hilario and Kristine Agas were on hand to show tourists digital photos of the old Makati as visual aids.

The Ayala Triangle Gardens serves as the last stop of the CBD tour where visitors are able to appreciate the greens and see a fountain and marker that commemorate Colonel Joseph McMicking and Mercedes Zobel McMicking, founders of the Filipinas Foundation, now Ayala Foundation, the first corporate foundation in the Philippines. They are credited for contributions “to the development of Ayala Corporation, Makati City, and the rest of the country.”

On weekends at 10 a.m., there is a tour of the country’s longest elevated pedestrian walkway that ends at the famous Salcedo Market on Saturdays and the Legaspi Market on Sundays.

A Poblacion walking tour is being offered at 4 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays where visitors can discover places for entertainment and recreation in the heritage district. The Z Hostel along Don Pedro Street in Barangay Poblacion serves as the meeting point.

Apart from the Poblacion Heritage Tour, also coming soon will be a walking tour of the St. Alphonsus Mary de Liguori Church and Garden Way of the Cross.

“It is really a cosmopolitan city,” Yabut said of Makati. “It’s a mixture of old and new. That’s why everything is really in Makati. That’s why our slogan is ‘Whoever you are, wherever you’re from, there’s a little bit of Makati in you.’ So anything you’ll be needing you want to see, it’s all here in Makati.”