Meaning & History
The City of Las Piñas was founded on either 1762 or 1797. It is one of the 16 cities making up the NCR of the Philippines. It has a land area of 32.69 km2 and has 588,894 people living in it as of the 2015 census.The story about the true origin of the city's name, "Las Piñas", varies. One version mentioned, that traders from the province of Cavite and Batangas shipped their first piñas (Spanish for pineapples) for sale to this town before they were distributed to nearby markets. Another version related that it was "Las Peñas" (the rocks), evident by the quarrying of stones and adobe which were used to construct buildings and bridges. The old church bell from St. Joseph Parish Church founded by Diego Cera has been preserved inside the church museum. An inscription on the bell states, "Siendo cura del pueblo de Laspeñas el M.R.P. Padre Diego Cera se fundió este equilón año de 1820," showing that even during the time of Diego Cera, the town's first parish priest, the town was called "Las Peñas", for some time and eventually was renamed "Las Piñas".