Other Dream Worlds in Manila
A prime example of the global city in Manila is the first residential building in southeast Asia under the brand of Trump, an international symbol of affluence and power. The high-rise started selling units in 2011, prior to the commencement of construction in 2012. It was completed in 2017 for the estimated cost of $150 billion dollars. Its 57 stories make it the tallest skyscraper in Manila (Wikapedia,2017). It is also one of the city’s most controversial buildings.According to an article by National Public Radio, the relationship between United States appointed trade positions and private ownership is blurred specifically, Jose E. B. Antonio was appointed as the Philippine trade envoy to the United States, he is also the real-estate developer involved in the building of Trump towers in Manila. Local and international businesses wonder at the impact the
partnership will make on prime real-estate availability in Manila (NPR 2017).
I
In Marco Garrido’s “The Ideology of the Dual City: The Modernist Ethic in the Corporate Development of Makati City, Metro Manila”(2013), we learn of the effects of globalization on the growth of Manila’s skyscrapers, gated enclaves and idealized communities all of which could be in any global city. Garrido explains that for a global city to be city of luxury it must also be
controlled. For a global city to be gentrified it must have advanced services. The global city will also be a suburban city with direct production in skilled labor and will also contain a tenement city with unskilled workers. Garrido’s description of the global city is synonymous with the city of Manila.
According to Timothy Mitchel’s “Dreamland” (2007)about Cairo Egypt, a key symbol of a
global city is its transnational business center, with multinational corporations that represent the global economy. International image is a driving force in the construction of the global city, transforming a city’s landscape to an instantaneously recognizable skyline.
In the case of metro Manila there has been an increasing demand for high rise office buildings to support the agglomeration of global capital and service centers. Areas of metro manila such as New Makati and Fort Bonifacio are reserved for transnational business with towering skyscrapers, massive industrial complexes and gated residential
communities to house the ultra-rich. Private armed guards patrol the streets and close them to outside traffic, successfully segregating the urban oasis from the poor and displaced.
Thus, as Garrido explains in his discussion of Manila as a dual city the politics and ethics of neoliberal urban development differ from conventional ethics. As shown in Manila, development is about what is best for the infrastructure and economic growth of a city regarding its participation in the global economy. Developmental ethics do not consider privatization and its spatial segregation of classes or the local compression of space that is a result of exclusive developments that deny access to the public spaces of the city.
