1. Parish of St.
Joseph,
Las Piñas City
A Presentation
By Janinna N. Casuncad
203 C

2.  St. Joseph Parish Church is the
Roman Catholic church of the parish
of Las Piñas, just south of the city of
Manila in the Philippines. The church
is renowned as the house of the Las
Piñas Bamboo Organ, a pipe organ
made mostly with bamboo pipes. To
the right of the church is an old
Spanish convent converted into a gift
shop and the entrance for observing
the organ up close. Also in the church
complex is St. Joseph's Academy, a
primary and secondary education
school established in 1914.

3.  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.
Father Diego Cera de la Virgen del
Carmen, a native of Spain, traveled
from Mabalacat, Pampanga province
and arrived on the town on the
second day of Christmas 1795. Soon
after, he started building the church
made from adobe (volcanic) stones
in the Earthquake Baroque
architectural style.

4.  Father Diego Cera 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.

5.  In 1914, Belgian missionaries Fr. Jose van Runenkelen and Fr. Victor Zaiel
of Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae (CICM) established St. Joseph's
School next to the church to foster literacy in the parish community. The
school, which started as a grade school, eventually included secondary
education and was renamed as St. Joseph Academy.
 Between 1971 and 1975, with the help from the community and neighboring
towns, the church was restored by a National Artists of the Philippines for
architecture Francisco Mañosa with Architect Ludwig Alvarez back to its
19th-century look. The event coincided with the return of the Las Piñas
Bamboo Organ on March 13, 1975 after three years of rehabilitation in Bonn,
Germany, reviving the organ back to its original state. On May 9, 1975, the
bamboo organ made its inaugural concert at the newly-renovated church and
surrounding buildings.
 The parish falls under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Diocese of
Parañaque. Currently, the parish priest of the Las Piñas church is Rev. Msgr.
Mario Josefino Martinez, PC, JCD since July 1, 2011.

9.  The Las Piñas Bamboo Organ in St. Joseph Parish Church,
the parish church of Las Piñas City in the Philippines, is a
nineteenth-century pipe organ made almost entirely from
bamboo. The organ is declared a National Cultural Treasure of
the country.

10.  Since 1992, Prof. Armando V. Salarza has been the titular
organist of the Bamboo Organ. He is also the Artistic Director of
the International Bamboo Organ Festival, the longest-running
international music festival held in the Philippines. The National
Museum of the Philippines officially declared the Las Piñas
Bamboo Organ a National Cultural Treasure on March 11, 2004
for its uniqueness and significance.

11. my brother and I with Sr. Armando Salarza,
titular organist of Bamboo Organ I even bought my younger sister to the
Bamboo Organ! I play the Bamboo
(Pipe Organ Workshop last summer)
Organ dring Sunday Masses..
my brother and I with Sr. Cealwyn Tagle,
Organ builder/ restorer of Bamboo Organ