MANILA: A museum displaying the famed shoe collection of ex-first lady Imelda Marcos has reopened in the Philippines, heralding a fightback by its beleaguered shoe industry against a flood of cheap imports. The museum is not just a showcase of the best of Imelda Marcos's 3,000-pair collection, but also of the craftsmanship in shoe-making in the riverside eastern suburb of Marikina where the industry was born over a century ago. Footwear consultant Tessie Endriga said Imelda Marcos failed to provide the Marikina shoe industry with much-needed infrastructure or financing when she was in power. But she did help in her own way. “She did patronize local brands. If she liked a certain style, she would buy a dozen pairs,” recalled Endriga, who has worked with the government's Bureau of Product Standards. Marikina shoes were once famous, both locally and abroad, until low-priced footwear from countries like China and Vietnam flooded the industry over the years, said local business leader Jose Tayawa.“You buy Marikina-made shoes and use them for five years. You buy Chinese shoes for one-fifth the price but you can only use them for a few months,” said Tayawa, the head of the Marikina Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Former shoe museum curator Dolly Borlongan conceded that most of Imelda Marcos's shoes were imported but added that there are many Marikina shoes among them, as well as displays on Marikina's shoe-making history. The museum was set up in 1998 as just one more way for Marikina to advertise its century-long history of making footwear, from humble slippers to rugged work boots to high-fashion custom shoes. The town has also made the world's largest shoes – a pair of leather men's shoes, each as large as a van – which are still on display at a Marikina mall. Generations of Filipinos grew up wearing the local products, and Marikina-made snake-skin shoes became the toast of Fifth Avenue in the early-1980s, the city boasts on its website. But Marikina's shoe-makers – and the shoe museum – have suffered setbacks in recent years. Massive flooding from tropical storm Ketsana last year damaged the museum as well as many shoe-makers' facilities and inventory. The storm and the foreign competition took their toll. From the mid-1990s peak of 3,000, only about 200 Marikina shoemaking factories remain, said Roger Py, director-general of the Philippine Footwear Federation. – Agence France
