The City of 

Las Piñas is one of the cities that can be found in the National Capital Region.
The city has many nicknames such as Home of the Bamboo Organ, City of Love and
Progress, Salt Center of Metro Manila, and the Lantern Capital of Metro Manila.

Las Piñas, officially the City of Las Piñas (Tagalog: Lungsod ng Las Piñas), is a 1st class highly
urbanized city in Metropolitan Manila, Philippines. According to the 2015 census, it has a population
of 588,894 people.

The Saint Joseph Parish (Spanish: Iglesia Parroquial de San Jose), otherwise known as the Las

On November 5, 1795, the Archbishop of Manila assigned Las Piñas, then a small town of farmers
and fishermen, to the Augustinian Recollects to establish a new church. Fray Diego Cera de la
Virgen del Carmen, a native of Spain, traveled from Mabalacat, Pampanga province and arrived on
the town on the day after Christmas of 1795. Soon after, he started building the church made from
adobe (volcanic) stones in the Earthquake Baroque architectural style.[1][3]
The new parish priest was a very gifted man. He was a natural
scientist, chemist, architect, community leader, as well as organist and organ builder. He also built
the organs for the Manila Cathedral and San Nicolas de Tolentino Church, the
main Augustinian church in the old walled city of Manila. In 1816, when the stone church was almost
complete, he started building the organ made of bamboo and completed the instrument in 1824. [1]
Fray Diego Cera served as the parish priest of Las Piñas till May 15, 1832, when he could no longer
perform his duties due to severe illness. He died on June 24, 1832, in Manila. [1]

From its days as the salt center of Manila to its bright present as a rapidly
urbanizing residential-commercial center, Las Piñas has indeed come a long way.

Known nationwide for its bamboo organ, salt beds, and jeepney factories, Las Piñas is
distinguished as one of Metro Manila’s fastest-growing communities. Continued
economic growth, coupled with effective local governance, have earned Las Piñas the
distinction of being Metro Manila’s cleanest and most peaceful city for three years
straight.
Although it became a city only in 1997, Las Piñas was one of the first settlements on the
outskirts of Manila. In 1797, during Spain’s four-hundred-year rule, a Spanish
missionary by the name of Fr. Diego Cera was brought to a barrio in Parañaque with a
mere 1,200 inhabitants—what was to later become Las Piñas. This holy man’s hard
work, persistence, and vision put the sleepy fishing village on the road to progress and
development, leading to the establishment of the Las Piñas Church in 1819, the six-year
construction of the bamboo organ, as well as the building of roads and bridges that
spawned the industries of dye making, salt production, and handicrafts.

The years that followed were trying times for the barrio as it fell prey to roaming bandits,
and then in 1880, they lost hundreds of residents from outbreaks of cholera and
smallpox. More residents were lost sixteen years later when, during the Philippine
revolution against Spain, Las Piñas became the battlefield of several bloody encounters
between the forces of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo and the Spanish troops. Some years after
the Philippine-American war, on March 27, 1907, Las Piñas was spun off from
Parañaque and was proclaimed an independent municipality.

With the construction of the South Super Highways in the 1960s, Las Piñas
became a first-class municipality. For urbanites wanting to escape the
congestion of Greater Manila’s inner cities, it became a welcome alternative,
whether for residence or business.

The once quiet and rustic coastal town was transforming into a bustling urban center for
residential subdivisions and large industries, its proximity to Manila and transportation
and communication advantages drawing in real estate developers and other business
investors. This economic growth was further boosted with the construction of the
Coastal Road in the mid-80s which directly linked Metro Manila to Cavite. From the
early ’90s to today, Las Piñas has served as the gateway to the CALABARZON (Cavite,
Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon), an industrial-growth corridor whose rapid
expansion is led by the demands of a sophisticated suburban populace and high-
technology industries.
Las Piñas, officially the City of Las Piñas (Tagalog: Lungsod ng Las Piñas), is a 1st
class highly urbanized city in Metropolitan Manila, Philippines.
...

Las Piñas

• Type Sangguniang Panlungsod

• Mayor Imelda Aguilar

• Vice Mayor April T. Aguilar-Nery

• Representative Camille A. Villar

27th of July
Cynthia Villar highlighted the importance of water lily in improving the lives of Las
Piñas residents by declaring the 27th of July as the day of the Water Lily Festival

Las Piñas was one of the earliest fishing settlements on the shores of Manila Bay and was
proclaimed a town either in 1762 or 1797. Its exact date of creation cannot be ascertained
because historical records vary. Cavada, a Spanish historian and Fr. Juan Medina placed it
at 1762, while Buzeta recorded the date at 1797.