Like all government institutions, the BSP is expected to foster a sense of nationhood among its Filipino stakeholders.
No matter how closely he looks, the governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will not find the phrase “foster a sense of nationhood” in the section of the New Central Bank Act of 1993 dealing with the functions of the nation’s monetary authority.
The phrase may not be part of the Act’s text, but “foster a sense of nationhood” is definitely an inherent function of the BSP. Like all government institutions, the BSP is expected to foster a sense of nationhood among its Filipino stakeholders.
The BSP had been doing a commendable job of managing the monetary and financial systems of this country, but in recent times it has engaged in an activity categorizable as doing something likely to weaken the sense of nationhood of Filipinos.
The activity to which I refer is the redesign of this country’s paper currency. The design of Philippine currency—banknotes and coins—and the manner and limits of its circulation are within the regulatory authority of this country’s monetary authority.
Since its establishment, this country’s central bank—initially the Central Bank of the Philippines, later the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas—has designed and placed in circulation banknotes depicting national heroes and former Presidents of the Philippines.
The selection of subject for each banknote denomination was done according to the subject’s place in the nation’s pantheon of heroes, with Dr. Jose Rizal’s face gracing the most widely circulated banknote. The faces of the two Commonwealth Presidents, Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmena Sr., also were choices for the most widely circulated banknotes.
The faces of latter-day heroes were added to the list of subjects for post-EDSA Revolution banknotes. Three World War II heroes—General Vicente Lim, Secretary of Justice Jose Abad Santos and Josefa Llanes Escoda—were chosen to grace the P1,000 banknote. And as a tribute to their exemplary lives, President Corazon Aquino and her husband, Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., were chosen by the post-EDSA Revolution Monetary Board to grace the P 500 bill.
Last year, the BSP changed all that. It redesigned and placed in circulation paper currency that no longer bore the faces of national heroes and pat Chief Executives. Gone were the faces of Jose Rizal, Apolinario Mabini, Manuel Quezon, General Lim, et al. The new paper currency now features all manner of Philippine flora, fauna and geography – plants, flowers, tamaraws, peacocks and Mayon Volcano, among other subjects.
As a result of this change in the BSP paper currency policy, Filipinos will henceforth go about their daily financial lives handling and looking at pictures of Mayon Volcano, exotic flowers and deer. The question that bears asking and answering is, does looking at these pictures, beautiful they may be, do anything to promote the effort to make the Filipino people an integrated community knowledgeable about their nation’s past and proud of their collective identity? The answer is a resounding No.
And so, as the title of this column says, hello, flora and fauna, goodbye, nationhood.
(llagasjessa@yahoo.com)