MANILA, Philippines – The August Twenty-One Movement (ATOM), which was formed after the August 21, 1983 assassination of the late senator Ninoy Aquino under the Marcos dictatorship, questioned the release of new Philippine banknotes that no longer feature the country’s heroes.
“For more than two decades, the dictator’s family has been hard at work trying to rewrite history and erase from our collective memory the heroes who bravely fought for our freedom,” ATOM said in a statement on Friday, December 20.
“Seriously, are we really going to forget those who have fallen during the night? Do we really want a country devoid of heroes? Are we better off forgetting them? Are they trying to make us forget that the blood of heroes runs in our veins so they can replace it with the blood of slaves and let tyrants rule again? Another thing that Rizal said, ‘there are no tyrants where there are no slaves.'”
On Thursday, December 19, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) unveiled the new designs of Philippine banknotes for the 500, 100, and 50-peso bills. This completed the BSP’s First Philippine Polymer Banknote Series, which earlier launched the new 1000-peso bill in 2021.
However, this new series removed the faces of local heroes in the Philippine banknotes.
From the removal of the portraits of World War II heroes Jose Abad Santos, Josefa Llanes Escoda, and Vicente Lim in the 1000-peso bill in 2021, the new bank notes now exclude the faces of Ninoy Aquino and the late president Cory Aquino, as well as those of former presidents Manuel Roxas and Sergio Osmeña.
The Aquinos were replaced by the Visayan spotted deer in the 500-peso bill, while the Palawan peacock-pheasant replaced the image of Roxas, and the Visayan leopard cat is featured in the space that featured Osmeña.
The killing of Aquino in 1983 sparked massive protests that culminated in the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution that ousted then-president Ferdinand Marcos and forced his family to live in exile.
“We didn’t know that we had this species indigenous in our country. So not only is it useful as currency, we learn something from these new polymer notes…. Beyond featuring our biodiversity, these notes honor the everyday culture that we live and that we see around us,” said the late Marcos’ only son, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., during the new banknotes’ presentation on Thursday.
In 2021, the government’s removal of Abad Santos, Escoda, and Lim’s portrait in the 1000-peso bill angered their families, with Escoda’s nephew saying that the move was “like killing [the] three people again.” Abad Santos and Lim’s descendants also questioned the BSP’s move under then-governor Benjamin Diokno.
The three families emphasized the need to include portraits of heroes in the banknotes, especially to promote heroism and honor the people who have fought for the country’s rights and independence.
“May the legacy and spirit of all our martyrs and leaders about to be removed from our bills continue to be remembered and serve as inspiration in the hearts of our people,” ATOM added.
Aside from the removal of heroes’ portraits, there’s a prior controversy involving BSP’s polymer banknotes. Critics and BSP officials had earlier flagged the country’s deal with Australia for the banknotes’ printing, saying that the agreement had not been made transparent to the public.
Polymer banknotes are also more expensive due to their more sophisticated security features. On top of that, the local abaca industry had resisted the shift to polymer because they said it would cause job losses among farmers. Old banknotes were made from a mix of cotton and abaca fiber. – Rappler.com