For today's Gen-Zs, Poblacion might ring a bell as a nightlife haven, with its many watering holes and specialty restaurants branching out from the LED-lit Burgos red light district.
But come Holy Week, the sex workers of Burgos transform into mourning women, while even the most seasoned drunkards and street videoke singers become saints, helping put up the annual Kalbaryos or small street churches tradition that has set the barangay apart for over a century now.
Benjamin Canapi, Wander Manila’s head tour guide, said there are now less than 60 Kalbaryos in different streets of Poblacion. Though "kalbaryo" sounds like Calvary, where Jesus was crucified, it actually referred to Brgy. Poblacion being difficult or a "kalbaryo" to trek because of its hilly terrain.
Although it has been a part of Makati residents' "panata" or sacrifice to visit every Kalbaryo as part of their Stations of the Cross Holy Week tradition, the Kalbaryos, said Canapi, are not based on the Stations of the Cross but on whatever images the small associations taking care of these Kalbaryos would like to put in them. The Kalbaryos range from simple altars with only holy images depicting the Passion of Christ, to this year, even holographic and animated images and a full-blown koi pond.
According to Canapi, the tradition began in 1920 with only one Kalbaryo in Ilaya Street. After World War II, the number of Kalbaryos ballooned and the tradition has since been uninterrupted except during the pandemic.
Most Kalbaryos are temporary builds, usually completed every Maundy Thursday to serve as venues for prayers and Pabasa of Pasyon, or the chanting of a 16th-century epic poem about Jesus’ life, passion, death and resurrection.
Poblacion’s official parish, Sts. Peter and Paul Church, provides the approval, certification and funding of Kalbaryos today.
Most Kalbaryos are taken down after Black Saturday or Easter Sunday, except for three that are permanent structures that serve as small chapels, community town halls or wake venues when it is not Holy Week.
One of the permanent Kalbaryos is in one of only three remaining Bahay na Bato heritage houses in Poblacion. This Kalbaryo under the care of the group BOMARIZ is believed to be the only one remaining from the American occupation in Poblacion. BOMARIZ is a portmanteau for "Bonifacio Makati Rizal" since Makati used to be a part of Rizal province.
One of the Kalbaryos, meanwhile, houses a life-size Santo Entierro, believed to be 200 years old, the oldest religious image in Makati.
Serious the Kalbaryos may be, but some of the groups taking care of them and assemble the small churches each year have funny names.
One is named D’Saint, where “Saint” means “SAmahan ng mga taga-Ilalim Ng Tulay." Another is Poultry, not from St. Peter's rooster, but from its then neighboring poultry house.
Funniest of them is “Bla-gag,” tracing its origins from the sound one makes after falling off a chair for being too drunk after a drinking session.
Though many men from these homeowner associations return to their old ways after Holy Week, thanks to these groups that build the Kalbaryos through community funding and sponsorship, a century-old tradition persists -- in the heart of a modern, cosmopolitan city that is Makati.