The One & Only; Marikina

MARIKINA: The Shoe Capital of the Philippines

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Historical Background  By Pauline Dela Paz


Every month of October day of 14 up to November 30, there's a festival celebrated by the Marikeños. It is called the "sapatos" festival. It was successfully done since it stared last year 2002, under the management of Mayor Marides Fernando. It for the shoe industry in Marikina to raise and to show the quality of the shoes made in Marikina all through out the years of continuous operation of factories in the city.

Marikina was the largest manufacturer and supplier of shoes in the Philipines.

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Don 'Kapitan Moy' Guevarra
Marikina was the largest manufacturer and supplier of shoes in the Philipines. They have the good qualities of shoes. At 1935 Marikina already have a hundred thirty nine shops producing 260,078 pairs of ladies shoes and 86,692 pair of men’s shoes which is worth 762,896.00 php.by 19 83, the city produces 70 percent of the shoe productions of the Philippines which is 30 million pairs of shoes as estimated value.

A man named Florinio Dela Paz traveled to Asian countries with a group of other local manufacturers. Last 1968. Kapitan Moy is a community leader that bought himself a pair of imported shoes during his travel in manila. He used it as an example for his makers for trial and to put them back together from pieces.

His residence became a public elementary school in 1912 during the pre-war years.

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Kapitan Moy Ancestral House
Then in 1968 it was declared as a national shrine. And in 1995, Mayor Bayani F. Fernando restored it to its original image ad declared as the city’s sentrong pangkultura .