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Post by Neil Allan C. de Leon on Jan 28, 2008 23:03:25 GMT -5
Las Piñas was one of the earliest settlements on the fringes of Manila, which explains its colorful past that dates back to the 17th century. It used to be a barrio of Parañaque, then a sleepy fishing village with only 1,200 residents.
It was through the vision and hard work of Spanish missionary Fr. Diego Cera, who was appointed as its parish priest in 1795 that the development of Las Piñas started. Fr. Cera’s efforts led to the establishment of the Las Piñas church in 1819, the construction of the Bamboo Organ which took six years to finish and the construction of roads and bridges that spurred simple industries like dye-making, salt-production and handicrafts.
The years that followed when the well-loved priest Fr. Cera was forced to return to Spain because of his failing health were among the darkest in Las Piñas. The barrio became easy prey to roaming bandits. In 1880, a strong earthquake shook the town. The barrio lost hundreds of residents due to successive outbreaks of cholera and smallpox two years later. From 1896 to 1898, Las Piñas also became the battlefield of several bloody encounters between the revolutionary forces of General Emilio Aguinaldo and the Spanish troops.
On March 27, 1907, Las Piñas was proclaimed an independent municipality by virtue of Philippine Commission Act No. 1625.
By the 1960s, with the construction of the South Superhighway, Las Piñas became a first class municipality. Las Piñas’ geographic proximity to Manila and its transportation became a major attraction to real estate developers and business investors, eventually transforming this once-quiet and rustic coastal town into a booming urban center of residential subdivisions and large industries.
It was officially included as one of the towns and cities comprising the then Metro Manila area (now National Capital Region) in 1976.
In recognition of its rapid urbanization and steady growth, Congress passed a bill authored by former Las Piñas congressman Manuel B. Villar Jr. converting the municipality into a highly-urbanized city.
On February 12, 1997, President Fidel V. Ramos signed the Las Piñas cityhood bill into law. Residents approved their cityhood in a plebiscite on March 26, 1997, making Las Piñas the 10th city of Metro Manila.
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Post by Neil Allan C. de Leon on Jan 28, 2008 23:04:57 GMT -5
Las Piñas is made renown by the famous Bamboo Organ, jeepney factories, and the white sparkling salt it produced in a traditional way, by solar method. The Bamboo Organ is the unique musical instrument built in 1874 by the ingenuity of Fr. Diego Cera of the Recollect Order and his native artisans, while the latter was the city's chief product that , when compared to other towns' salt, the local makers would surely evoke a proud claim of "Mas maputi ang aming asin!" (Our salt is whiter!).
Consisting of more or less 4,000 hectares of arable and fertile lands, the city lies south of Parañaque; bounded to the north by the town of Bacoor, Cavite; to the east by Muntinlupa City; and to the west by Manila Bay. The bay provides the city with about five kilometers of clean, sandy beaches plus the beauty of the fabled "Manila Bay Sunset" all-year-round. Moreover, this body of salthingyer abounds with marine life which sustains numerous fishermen in their livelihood. These God-given resources, added to the main industries of farming, fishing and salt making, are the bulwark of the city's economy.
Las Piñas is one of the seven towns and 10 cities that comprise the Philippine national Capital Region, otherwise known as Metro Manila. Although it only became a city only in 1997 by legislative flat, it was one of the earliest settlements on the fringes of Manila.
During the Spanish Regime, Las Piñas suffered several misfortunes. It had, time and again, been sacked by roaming bandits. In 1880, the town was reeling from epidemics of smallpox and cholera in which hundreds of lives were expended.
After some years of intermittent drought and rampant crimes brought about by abject poverty, the town experienced another misfortune. In 1896, Las Piñas became the scene of bloody encounters between the uprising Filipino troops of General Emilio Aguinaldo and the Spanish colonial forces. In the battles that ensued, Las Piñas produced fair share of heroes. It's sons and daughters gloriously offered their lives to the cause of liberty. Then came an abbreviated peace, a breathing spell from the Spanish-American War with Filipino participation on the side of the invading Americans.
The defeated Spanish combined colonial forces were finally brought into a treaty in Paris wherein they ceded the islands to the United States of America for the amount of 30 million dollars. The battle-weary Filipinos considered the Spanish act as amiss, since the country, through it's constituted President, declared independence from Spanish rule much earlier that the Treaty. The invading Americans came to Manila at a time when the Spanish-Filipino war for independence was ongoing and the Spanish forces were bottled up in Manila, facing an imminent defeat. The Americans truly effected the “coup de grace” in Manila and nowhere else for the Filipinos considered the Americans their ally. Much to their disappointment, the Filipino representative at the Treaty of Paris was disregarded and given no ear, because the USA was bent on “colonizing the Philippines and taming McKinley’s little brown brothers with crags” as Mark Twain put it. Thus broke the Philippine-American War.
A few years after the Philippine-American war, Las Piñas was spun off from Parañaque and was proclaimed an independent municipality on March 27, 1907 by virtue of Philippine Commission Act No. 1625.
By the 1960’s , with the construction of the South Superhighway, Las Piñas eventually became a first-class municipality as it turned into a major catch basin for new urbanites.
It was in 1976 that Las Piñas was officially recognized as one of the towns and cities comprising the then Metropolitan Manila Area, now Metro Manila.
In the mid-1980’s, the economic growth of Las Piñas was furthered boosted with the construction of the Coastal Road which directly linked Metro Manila to Cavite. Since the early 1990’s, Las Piñas has served as a gateway to the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal & Quezon) industrial growth corridor south of Manila. Rapid urbanization and the influx of several large commercial establishment in the municipality like SM Southmall, Uniwide Metromall, Ever Gotesco, Manuela, Price Mart and others also transformed Las Piñas into an alternative shopping Mecca.
Hence, the once salt center of Manila was transformed into a rapidly urbanizing residential-commercial center of Metro Manila. In terms of demographic growth, compared with Metro Manila’s 2.8 percent average annual growth rate, Las Piñas grew by about 8.08 percent during the last decade, making it one of the fastest growing communities in the country.
The 1995 census of the National Statistics Office (NSO) placed the population of Las Piñas at 413,086 distributed among its 20 Barangays. This elevated Las Piñas to the category of a highly urbanized area and eventually paved way for becoming a city in early 1997.
With its strategic position as major urban center in Metro Manila and as a gateway to the industrializing south, Las Piñas is making a tremendous increase in its total income. From total revenues of only about P86.2 million in 1992, the city’s total income steadily rose to P115.8 million in 1993, P210.3 million in 1994, P229.7 million in 1995, P322.7 million in 1996, P598.2 million in 1997 to P626.9 million in 1998.
It is in this context of rapid urbanization and steady growth that the town’s congressman, Manuel B. Villar Jr., authored in 1996 House Bill No. 665 or “an Act Converting the Municipality of Las Piñas into a Highly Urbanized City.” He also secured the support of the Upper House, the Senate, which unanimously passed its version, Senate Bill No. 1508. The bill was passed in only 11 working days, just before the end of 1996, thus earning for it the status as the fastest cityhood measure in Congress.
A few weeks later, a consolidated bill was approved by the bicameral conference committee and submitted to the president for approval. President Fidel V. Ramos signed the cityhood bill into law on February 12, 1997. This milestone opened another chapter in the evolution of Las Piñas from a backwater settlement almost three centuries ago into an vibrant, dynamic and modern community that blends the great legacies of the past with the bright future of the dynamic present.
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Post by ojemewuwines on May 9, 2019 11:09:05 GMT -5
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Post by uxukasiduf on May 9, 2019 12:27:25 GMT -5
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