New year, new banknotes

My “noche buena” memories are largely sensory: chatter and laughter from uncles, aunts, and 50 first cousins; piping-hot nilaga made hearty by jiggling pork belly fat; gifts wrapped and ribboned; last but not least, the scent of freshly minted banknotes as these were transferred from envelopes into our wallets.

Next year, my aguinaldo will smell and feel different because the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has shifted from paper to polymer banknotes. As an adult who now gives rather than receives aguinaldo, I need to ask the young ones what they think of polymer. They are not nostalgic for paper like me; they use debit cards and GCash more often than banknotes.

The issue at hand is two-fold: first, the change from paper to plastic; second, the major shift in design from historical figures to endangered animals and plants.

As chair of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) from 2002-2011, I served as adviser to the BSP Numismatic Committee and took an active part in the deliberations on the New Generation Currency first circulated in late 2010. After a presentation on the positive features of polymer over paper notes: more durable, resistant to bacteria and counterfeiting, etc. I asked the supplier, “Is it true that if I leave a polymer banknote on my car dashboard on a hot day, it will warp?” He replied, “No, it will not warp,” then with some hesitation, said: “But it will shrink.” He added sheepishly, “shrinkage is negligible.” With the rat in the trap, I smiled and said, “I don’t think the Philippines should have shrinking pesos.” We stuck to paper, especially to a paper blend with abaca for the P1,000 bill.

After leaving government in 2011, I received an Asian Public Intellectual Fellowship that enabled me to do research on history in the banknotes of Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. I learned that Japanese banknotes are sturdy due to Philippine abaca, and that for many years, the Bank of Japan had been in search of an abaca substitute. Why did we junk abaca in the P1,000 note? Why are all our notes now in polymer?

On the shift from portraits of historical figures to endangered species, that is the call of the BSP, not ours, though I wonder if the NHCP chair was at least consulted on this bold change. For perspective, we must look back to the earliest Filipino banknotes. We will not count the ones issued under Spanish, American, and Japanese occupations, not even the ones issued by the Malolos Republic whose face had a stub that made the banknotes resemble raffle tickets.

The first notes issued after the establishment of the Central Bank of the Philippines in 1949 were printed by Thomas de la Rue in London, and had heroes on them: GomBurZa was on P10, Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto on P20, Antonio Luna on P50, and Melchora Aquino or Tandang Sora on P100 (the only woman in a banknote series dominated by men). Before Jose Rizal graced the basic unit of currency in the 1970s, Apolinario Mabini was on the P1 note. Two presidents were included in the “English Series” issued by the Central Bank: Manuel Luis Quezon on P200 and Manuel Roxas on P500.

In the 2010 New Generation series, 19th-century heroes: Rizal, Bonifacio, Mabini, and Emilio Aguinaldo were relegated to coins, with the bills dominated by presidents: P20 has Quezon, P50 Sergio Osmeña, P100 Manuel Roxas, and P200 Diosdado Macapagal. The only female president in the series, Corazon Aquino (together with slain husband Ninoy Aquino), is on P500. Only heroes are on the P1,000 bill: Josefa Llanes Escoda, Vicente Lim, and Jose Abad Santos, all martyred during the Japanese Occupation.

Discussing the redesign of the 2010 New Generation Currency, I suggested replacing all the figures on the bills with significant cultural figures like Fernando Amorsolo (painting), Guillermo Tolentino (sculpture), Amado V. Hernandez (literature), and Teodoro Agoncillo (history). I also suggested National Scientists who should be better known. Studies were presented, but in the end, we had a series dominated by presidents rather than heroes. In retrospect, during the planning stage, Mar Roxas was going to make a run for Malacañang. If he did and had won, how would BSP explain dropping from P100 Roxas’ grandfather, acknowledged as the father of the Central Bank?

Flora and fauna on our currency is not new; we used to have them on the reverse side of our coins. Now they’re on the face of our banknotes: Philippine Eagle on P1,000, Visayan spotted deer on P500, Palawan peacock-pheasant P100, and Visayan leopard cat P50. These endangered species are so rare many Filipinos will never ever see a live specimen, and have to settle for banknotes.

If banknotes are the calling card of the nation, what do these animals say of us as a people? Those against polymer and what is printed on them must wait 10 years for the next change. Hopefully, the flora and fauna series will be replaced with heroes of the arts and sciences. Anything is better than presidents or politicians.

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Comments are welcome at aocampo@ateneo.edu