Geographical features, Unesco heritage sites, native fauna- the bills are no longer solely a heroes? gallery
COME THE Year of the Metal Hare, not only will crisp money bear the signature of the just-minted President. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas will be releasing radically redesigned peso bills.

The need to integrate state-of-the-art security features in our money has long been felt to guard against counterfeiting. Two years ago, to oversee the process, the BSP Monetary Board convened a numismatic committee which included board member Diwa Guinigundo, former Gov. Jaime C. Laya and Ambeth Ocampo of the National Historical Commission.

The committee took the opportunity to revise the look and content of legal tender.

Philippine banknotes

A country?s currency provides a record of important events, economic circumstances and cultural life over time.

In 1852, the Philippines? first paper money was issued upon Spanish royal decree by the Banco Español-Filipino. The First Republic also authorized paper currency.

During the American regime, the Philippine Treasury issued notes backed by silver reserves. The Banco Español-Filipino?s corporate descendant, the Bank of the Philippine Islands, as well as the government-backed Philippine National Bank, also issued circulating notes.

During World War II, the Japanese-supported government came out with huge amounts of paper money that would eventually be worthless. Pro-US guerillas also printed crude scrip.

The post-WWII Central Bank issued peso bills which established the major features of subsequent ones. The country?s paper money underwent several revisions under Ferdinand Marcos.

The design matrix of our money was altered after the Edsa Revolution and, since then, the basic template established during Corazon Aquino?s presidency has been retained.

From the ?70s to the ?90s, the lower denominations of paper bills which featured the revolutionary founders of the nation?Rizal, Bonifacio, Jacinto, Mabini?were eliminated. Their demotion to coins is symbolic of the diminution of their radical ideas by the country?s elite.

Introduced during Ramos? term was the non-circulating Centennial P100,000 denomination; the P2,000 second-millenium bill during Estrada?s term; and the Edsa II P200 note during Macapagal-Arroyo?s long tenure.

The BSP numismatic committee deliberated exhaustively on suggestions to replace martyrs and deceased Presidents with National Artists and scientists, and to replace landmarks and views with flora and fauna.

By the time they came to agree on the concepts for the new designs, there was a need to issue banknotes to meet demand during the 2010 holiday season.

The BSP reissued paper money with the old design but, as mandated by law, bearing the signature of the new President. The BSP also decided that latter December-early January would be the right time to phase in the redesigned money.

Banknote designers

Two of the country?s leading design firms collaborated on the new bank notes.

Studio 5 Designs has a reputation in graphic communications, specializing in marketing and corporate communications. It has also published award-winning large-format books on Philippine history, art and culture.

Design Systemat is well-known in graphic, industrial and environment design, particularly for conceptualizing corporate and brand identities.

Interestingly, the principals in both design firms are mother-son tandems: Studio 5?s president and CEO Marily Y. Orosa is the mother of her VP for Creatives, BG Hernandez. His counterpart in Systemat, Paolo Buñag, is the son of the outfit?s president, Peachy Buñag.

BG Hernandez of Studio 5 designed the obverse of the P20 bill, creating the matrix that was followed in all six notes. Systemat worked on the reverse of the notes.

The redesigned banknotes introduces the new BSP logo. The round seal in light blue features a stylized Philippine eagle, signifying the readiness of the BSP to soar and fly toward its goals. The three gold stars represent the three pillars of central banking: monetary stability; a solid banking system; and a reliable payments system for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

After an initial run done abroad, the new banknotes will be produced in the Philippines upon the arrival of new printing machinery and the training of Filipino personnel sometime next year.

Lessons in history

The new currency are pictorial lessons on Philippine geography; political history and culture; as well as changing Filipino aspirations and values relevant to our present historical development.

The belief in a Supreme Being is expressed in a quote from the Book of Psalms, ?Pinagpala ang bansa na ang Diyos ang Panginoon? (?Blessed is the nation whose Lord is God?).

Featured on the front sides are the same great men and women as before, but the designers researched for new and better photographs from their families? albums. Around the portraits are vignettes?based on archival photographs?depicting critical points in their lives and careers and positive moments in our nation?s history.

Still on the new P20 bill is Manuel Quezon, who worked tirelessly for Philippine independence. He sponsored legislation for the development of a national language and women?s right to vote. Quezon was the first President to be elected through a national election and to hold office in Malacañang.

On the new P50 bill is still Sergio Osmeña, who led the nation at the end of WWII into independence. During his term, the Philippines joined the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The P100 bill has Manuel Roxas, who was only 27 when he became Governor of Capiz, which he later represented. He was Speaker of the House for a dozen years. The Third Republic?s first President initiated a Master Economic Plan for postwar reconstruction and development, which included the establishment of a central bank.

After his untimely death, Roxas? successor Elpidio Quirino signed into law Republic Act No. 265, which established the Central Bank of the Philippines.

On the P200 note is Diosdado P. Macapagal, remembered for moving the celebration of Philippine independence to June 12, and his land reform and socio-economic agenda. His daughter Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed the Presidency as a result of the Edsa People Power II in 2001.

Three Aquinos

Corazon C. Aquino was the widow of Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr., whose imprisonment during the Marcos dictatorship and assassination helped bring about the People Power Revolution. She became the Philippines? 11th and first female President, presiding over the restoration of democracy and the crafting of a new Constitution.

Soon after the death of Corazon Aquino, there was a public clamor for her image to be included in the P500 banknote, beside that of her husband. When BSP officials agreed it was one of the ways the nation could express deep gratitude to someone who had dedicated her life to the country and our people, they did not expect that, less than a year later, her only son Benigno S. Aquino III would become the 15th President.

On the obverse of the P1000 bill are the likenesses of three WWII martyrs. Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos was executed for refusing to cooperate with the Japanese forces. Brig- Gen. Vicente P. Lim, Chief of Staff of the Philippine Army, was captured and killed by the Japanese. Josefa Llanes Escoda, a social worker, educator and organizer, helped prisoners of war during the Japanese occupation. For this, she and her husband Antonio were killed before the war ended.

National patrimony

On the reverse, all the bills show scenic geographical features unique to particular regions, such as the Volcano Lake in Taal, Batangas; Albay?s Mayon Volcano; and Bohol?s Chocolate Hills.

The others are Unesco World Heritage Sites: the 2,000-year-old Banaue rice terraces, the Subterranean River National Park in Palawan and the Tubbataha Reef Marine Park in the Sulu Sea. All of the landscape views were taken by Filipino photographers.

Superimposed over the scenic views are fauna found in these locales: the palm civet (alamid), the tarsier and the rare blue-naped parrot. There are also the giant trevally (maliputo); the Pinctada maxima: oysters that produce the largest pearls in the world. The whale shark (butanding), was from a photograph by award-winning underwater photographer Scott Tuason.

The views are flanked on the left by the eight-rayed sun in our flag, and the word ?Pilipino? written in baybayin syllabary, representing our people?s democratic and national aspirations.

On the right side of all the new bills, representing the role of culture in national life, are vertical strips which are details from traditional weaves such as tapis, malong and t?nalak from the Ramon N. Villegas textile collection.

The reverse sides, taken frame by frame, are essays on the inextricable interrelationship between our sense of nationalism and cultural identity, and the preservation and development of the country?s natural patrimony.

Renewal

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas? issuance of redesigned money, using the tagline ?Pagbabago ng pera, sagisag ng bagong pag-asa? (New Money: the Currency of Hope and Change) soon after the election of a new President, is fortuitous. It resonates with the highly popular administration?s theme of change.

Not only do peso bills quantify the parameters of commercial and financial transactions; they also qualify our aspirations as a nation, our values as a people. And those, after all, are what will make the rest of the world put their money on us.