BEFORE becoming a highly urbanized city, Las Piñas was once a fishing settlement on the southeastern part of Manila Bay. The stretch between Poblacion and Zapote was lined with salt beds known for producing a high-quality salt called 'primera.' Meanwhile, from Zapote to Alabang, the land was filled with rice fields and bamboo farms.

The abundance of bamboo in Las Piñas played an important role in its early development. In 1795, an Augustinian Recollect priest named Father Diego Cera was assigned to Las Piñas. Cera initiated the construction of a new stone church, and upon nearing its completion in 1816, he began working on a unique organ made from local bamboo. To prepare the bamboo pipes, they were buried in salty sand for six months to make them insect-resistant. After that, he assembled the now-famous Bamboo Organ using 1,031 pipes, 902 of which were crafted from hardened bamboo. On Christmas of 1824, two hundred years ago, the renowned Las Piñas Bamboo Organ played Christmas music for the very first time.