Anyone who’s had a mixed group of friends who live in both the South and North ends of Metro Manila knows the pain of trying to get everyone to agree on a meeting place. Everything is either “too North” or “too South” with no one wanting to admit where the middle ground is. Well, one brave Twitter user has finally done the research and said it: It’s Makati.Â
Kat Mayuga recently posted on Twitter the findings of a random thought she had. She shares that she decided to check the distance between Metro Manila’s North and South areas to see where the center really is since this is something of a hobby for her. She tweeted:
In terms of distance, ang halfway ng North at South ay Glorietta.
Accdg. to Google Maps, Alabang Town Center to Trinoma is 34km. Alabang to Glorietta is 17km Trinoma to Glorietta is also 17km.
In terms of distance, ang halfway ng North at South ay Glorietta
Accdg. to Google Maps, Alabang Town Center to Trinoma is 34km.
Alabang to Glorietta is 17km
Trinoma to Glorietta is also 17km pic.twitter.com/hJPM98gGMm— K.M. (@sohkatoa) February 18, 2019
The first step in her process was to account for the total distance between Trinoma Mall and Alabang Town Center. In a follow-up tweet, she explains that these 2 points were chosen because they’re the more ‘popular’ malls and are usually used as meet-up points.
Since the total distance amounted to 34km, she then looked for the halfway point which would be 17km away from each point. Simple math, even a Liberal Arts graduate like me can get that.
It turned out that Glorietta was perfectly 17km away from both ATC and Trinoma. However, she does disclaim that “when it comes to kilometers, yeah Makati is the center. But the south’s skyway makes it look nearer to the south because from Alabang you can get to Makati in [around] 20min. If you’re coming from the north, you have to brave EDSA which can take you a while.”
Then again, those replying to the tweet argue that not everyone can take the Skyway, or that the Skyway also experiences severe traffic at different points of the day. Others are also saying that the method doesn’t account for commute routes, and this only applies to those who can use a car. Of course, you can’t forget that time is an important element here — based on experience, south-bound traffic is typically worse in the morning while north-bound traffic is hell at night.
What do you think? Put an end to this North-South debate and let us know where you think Metro Manila’s ~true middle~ is!Â
