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Muntinlupa City is one of the 16 cities that make up the National Capital Region (NCR). It first had the classification of "town" and only became a "Highly Urbanized City" to be called "The City of Muntinlupa" in 1995 through the Republic Act No. 7926. As of 2010, it boasts of a population of 459,941 and has an income classification of "First Class", meaning an average annual income of P400M or more.
Being the southernmost city of NCR, it is usually referred to as "South" by other Manileños. And because of its location, most people consider it too far, not taking into consideration that the first exit to reach its border (Sucat) is only less than 30 minutes away from the Makati Business District, or that Alabang is less than an hour away from Ortigas Center. This is mostly thanks to the Skyway and the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX). However, traffic will already be felt once you enter the smaller roads like the National Highway, Alabang-Zapote Road, etc. But really, it’s no worse than anywhere else in Metro Manila.
I have been living in Muntinlupa since 1997 in one of its 60 subdivisions. I have been called “Batang Munti” on occasion, both because of my size and also because munti is the shortcut for the city’s long name. The origin of the city’s name has at least three versions. The first is that because of the thin (munti) top soil (lupa) in the area. The second is that the town is very hilly or mountainous so “monte” was affixed to the land or “lupa”. The third and very likely explanation is that the Spaniards who came to ask the name of the town misunderstood the answer of the locals. The locals were playing a card game called “monte de lupa” and they thought that the Spaniards were asking about it. But as is the norm, there are no archives or records to prove that any of these are true. But the truth remains that the city has been called “Muntinlupa” as far as anyone alive can remember.
Meanwhile, “Munti” has also been very much associated to the national penitentiary: the New Bilibid Prison. Mentioning that one lives in Muntinlupa would usually elicit the question “sa loob o sa labas?” meaning inside or outside the prison. Although home to one of the country’s richest subdivisions, Ayala Alabang Village, an average Muntinlupa resident would seldom get teased about being rich and living there. Like it would be more likely to live inside the prison than in the posh subdivision.
Anyway, Muntinlupa City should rather be known as the first city in the Philippines to ban the use of plastic bags and Styrofoam for packaging. More and more cities have been copying this green movement and because of it, we should propagate Muntinlupa’s official nickname: the Emerald City of the Philippines. Now ain’t that wicked? ^___^
