UniTeam Senate slate member and House Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda is eyeing the revival of Marikina City’s shoe industry if she gets elected to the Senate in the upcoming May 2022 polls.
Legarda's proposal is based specifically on legislating extra funding and technical support to assist the industry’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The shoes made in Marikina are of excellent quality, but without adequate support, especially by way of patronizing and marketing the products, and due to the effects of the pandemic, the industry had struggled to sustain operations...We need to have programs that would help revive the industry. Support from both the national and local governments is needed,” Legarda said in a press statement on Thursday, March 24.
One of Legarda’s electoral platforms is providing support for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Thus, one of her proposed solutions to boost the local shoe industry’s revival is better exposure, or “information dissemination.
"We can invite more Filipinos and foreigners to visit the shoe museum in Marikina and organize trade fairs to showcase their products while observing the minimum health protocols. We should also enhance our information dissemination and introduce to our shoemakers and MSME the available government programs and assistance they are entitled to avail,” explained the former Senate race topnotcher.
“Nasabukan ko na din pong mag-suot ng gawang-Marikina at bilib ako sa galing ng ating mga (I have tried wearing Marikina-made products and I believe in the talents of our) shoemakers. That’s why we have to do something to keep the industry alive,” she concluded.
Legarda is gunning for a Senate seat under the UniTeam ticket, which is led by presidential bet Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and his running mate Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte.