28/08/2023
HISTORY OF MAKATI EMBO BARANGAYS
CEMBO
A popular acronym for Central Enlisted Men's Barrio, has its beginnings in 1949, when the first batch of enlisted servicemen from the Infantry Group, Philippine Ground Force, Florida Blanca, Pampanga arrived at the Fort William McKinley (now Fort Bonifacio). They were directed to settle at big rolling open tract of land adjacent to the North Gate (Gate I) which was mostly covered by a dense growth of cogon grass. The place was selected to be the site for the housing area of the enlisted personnel of the Philippine Ground Force.
As the bulk of the whole command came later, the housing area became congested. Sgt. Teofilo Bautista, the Barrio Lieutenant and Assistant Reservation Officer, was directed by the higher headquarter offices to lead a survey team for the location of the unoccupied space in the vast sprawling reservation. Subsequently, other barrios were created like West Rembo East Rembo, Comembo, and Pembo to accommodate the increasing population of the military personnel.
PEMBO
A military reservation and home of the elite AFP crack unit, the First Ranger code-named "PANTHERS". The literal meaning of the word PEMBO is PANTHERS ENLISTED MEN'S BARRIO. At first, only military personnel and their dependents were allowed to reside in the barrio. However, as the year went by more and more military dependents increased together with their civilian relatives and friends and reportedly sucked in unnoticed, in search of homes in the barrio.
On January 7, 1986, pursuant to Presidential Proclamation No. 2475 awaiting this portion of the military reservation lots to the actual occupants and called the area as Barangay Pembo. The said proclamation was amended to Proclamation No. 518 on January 31, 1990, limiting the disposition of these lots to bonafide occupants only who were residing in the proclaimed area on or before January 7,1986, to 50 square meters minimum and 300 square meters maximum per lot.
Barangay Pembo is so big, even bigger in land area than its neighboring Municipality of Pateros and had a land area of 123 hectares and a population of 65,000 inhabitants based on the 1995 population survey. As a result, in February 1996 City Ordinance No. 96-010, an ordinance creating a new barangay Barangay Rizal, part of Barangay Pembo, principally authored by Councilor Astolfo C. Pimentel and co-authored by the late Vice Mayor Arturo S. Yabut and all members of the Sangguniang Panglunsod ng Makati, the ordinance was enacted and approved.
COMEMBO
The area now known as Comembo was formerly Mamancat. Even before the coming of the Spanish colonizers, Mamancat was already a vibrant settlement teeming with various economic activities. As its name suggests, Mamancat – from the Tagalog root word ancat – means import, a central place where good commodities were acquired, purchased or bartered. This activity complemented the role played by its more prosperous neighbour, Aguho (now Pateros) known also during the Spanish time as embarcadero or a place for embarkation. It is an area where goods by foreign merchants coming from as far as India, China and the Middle East were brought and bartered for native goods and commodities. For more than a hundred years, Mamancat was under the wings of power of Pateros. Its inhabitants continued cultivating is fertile soil. The river, aside from supplying them with food was also used as their highway to transport their produce, animals and people going to and from other barangays. It served also as their sources of potable water used for drinking, cooking and bathing.
Mamancat was then a part of Meysapan (old name of Makati), a larger settlement, whose forests and mountain vastness served as hunting grounds for games, fowls, wild plants, fruits and vegetables necessary for the needs of its inhabitants.
When the Second World War broke out, Mamancat was totally abandoned by its inhabitants for fear of being hit by cross forces between the Japanese Imperial Army and the American-Filipino forces combined. Fort William McKinley was an important target for the invading Japanese forces because of its strategic location.
To maintain its presence in the Philippines, the American Colonial Government established military camps in the different parts of the country. It bought four big parcels of real estate from a wealthy landowner totalling 850 hectares which lies within the territorial boundaries of Pateros. To the detriment of Mamancat folks, their untitled farmlands were included in the deal. From then on, Mamancat was separated from Pateros and became part of a military reservation called Fort William McKinley.
Due to the continued pressure of the insurrectos in the rural areas, the American authorities secured the camp by enjoining all inhabitants to leave the area except for an American caretaker and some Filipino helpers who maintain the place.
Source:wikipedia
