Despite being hailed as the Philippines' shoe capital, Marikina City, a suburb east of Manila, remains in want of a professional shoemaking industry."I am saddened because, for so long, nobody thought of professionalizing our industry. Our shoemakers have low morale because people look down on them. I pity them," Noel Box, head of the Marikina City government's Shoe Industry Development Office, told Kyodo News in a recent interview.Box's aspiration, which is also his office's mandate, is shared by some young entrepreneurs in the city who have ventured into the different aspects of the 132-y…READ FULL ARTICLE
