Soldiers with a taste for luxury

Across yesterday's Glorietta 5 is one of the entrances to the sprawling, original Glorietta which is actually several interconnected malls. 1 to 4 should be in there somewhere. When I was much younger, these shopping centers were all separate buildings until the property arm of the Ayala Corporation, which owns all the land in the Ayala Commercial Center, decided to put them all literally under one roof. It has a big, circular area in the middle for mall events, with a stage for performances and a playground for children. When walking from the Ayala Station to Greenbelt, I usually cut across inside because of the airconditioning. The two tall towers connected to the mall are the Ascott Makati with its luxurious serviced residences, a cross between a hotel and an apartment. It used to be called the Oakwood Premier and this was where a group of more than 300 soldiers decided to hole up when they mutineed against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2003. It was soon after the Oakwood Mutiny that Ayala Land turned over management of the serviced residences to the Ascott Group.