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Paying it Forward: Our Money Heroes Revisited

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Aneth Ng-Lim

MANILA - As we mark another National Heroes&#x27; Day, it’s an opportune time to look back and remember the men and women who laid down their lives for our country.With a colonial history that spans nearly 4 centuries from 1565 to 1945, that list is quite long, so let’s focus for now on the heroes featured in the banknotes we all handle every day and celebrate the sacrifices they have made so we can enjoy our financial freedom.<div>DID YOU KNOW?</div>Our first banknotes were printed by the Central Bank of the Philippines in 1949 and was called the English Series. Two decades later, they introduced the Pilipino Series which was replaced by Ang Bagong Lipunan (The New Republic) banknotes in 1973. Twelve years later, these banknotes were demonetized with the introduction of the New Design Series.Nearly 30 years after, the New Generation Currency (NGC) was launched in 2010 which is the current set of banknotes we use to pay for goods and services. From the 14 banknotes of the English Series, we are now down to only 6, with denominations of P20, P50, P100, P200, P500 and P1000.As of June 30, 2018, there are about 3.4 billion pieces of NGC notes valued at some P1.20 billion in circulation.<div>MEET THE PRESIDENTS</div>Of the 6 NGC banknotes, 5 feature past Philippine Presidents.Manuel L. Quezon. In the English series, Quezon’s portrait graced the P200 banknote. With the change to the Pilipino Series, he was moved to the P20 note and has stayed with this denomination since.The first president of the Philippine Commonwealth, Quezon was a brilliant lawyer who placed 4th in the bar exams in 1903. He began his practice with a law office in his hometown Tayabas, Quezon where he earned $500 a month. He later gave up his lucrative private practice to become a local prosecutor earning $75.Maybe not the best decision money-wise, especially with his modest roots, but as a prosecutor, he achieved national fame when he won a high profile case against Francis Berry, a prominent American lawyer who was accused of illicit land transactions.At that time, it was unheard of for a Filipino to prosecute an American. The attention he received from this case won him the governor’s seat in Tayabas in 1906, which propelled him to national politics. The rest, as they say, is history.Sergio Osmeña. His portrait came out in the P50 note in the Pilipino Series and he has stayed with this denomination since.Osmeña served as Vice President to Quezon and rose to the presidency on Quezon’s untimely death while exiled in Washington. During the Leyte landing, he joined Gen. Douglas MacArthur and saw the liberation of the Philippines from the Japanese forces.He was also a lawyer by profession, and actually placed 2nd during the 1903 bar exams, which means he was 2 places higher than Quezon. He served as the first speaker of the Philippine Assembly, and to showcase his career milestones, the P50 note features photos of the Leyte landing and the first Philippine Assembly.Manuel A. Roxas. Osmena’s presidential bid was thwarted by Roxas, who won the 1945 elections, held a few months after the victorious Leyte landing.Roxas’ portrait was in the P500 English series note, then the highest denomination in the country. When the P500 note was removed in the Pilipino Series, he was featured in the P100 note and has remained here since.He was the last president of the Commonwealth and the first president of the Republic of the Philippines.After the Independence Day festivities, it became clear that the country was in dire economic straits and one of his first actions was to push for the creation of the Central Bank of the Philippines to stabilize the dollar reserves and coordinate banking activities towards economic progress.His fatal heart attack in 1948 made his term one of the shortest with only one year, ten months and 18 days in office.Diosdado P. Macapagal. The P200 note with Quezon’s portrait was removed after the English Series and was reintroduced in 2002 during the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The new note featured the portrait of her grandfather Diosdado Macapagal, the 5th president of the Republic of the Philippines.The son of poor tenant farmers, he was labeled the Poor Boy from Lubao, Pampanga. He was constantly forced to interrupt his schooling for lack of funds, but his perseverance paid off.He eventually earned a bachelor of laws degree in 1936, a master of laws degree in 1941 and a doctor of laws degree in 1947. He also received a doctorate in economics in 1957.But more than all these degrees, he is remembered for changing the date when Filipinos celebrate their independence from July 4 to June 12.July 4 was a date set by the United States, when they declared the Philippines independent from their rule. June 12 however was the day back in 1898 when the Filipino revolutionaries declared independence from Spain.Benigno and Corazon Aquino. When the P500 note was reintroduced in 1987, it featured only the portrait of journalist-turned-politician Benigno (Ninoy) Aquino, Jr. Known for proclaiming that “the Filipino is worth dying for,” his 1983 assassination sparked the EDSA People Power revolution and toppled the 20-year dictatorship of Marcos.When the NGC was released in 2010, the portrait of Aquino, Jr. was redesigned (made smaller) and a portrait of his wife, former president Corazon (Cory) Aquino who was recently deceased, was added.The first woman to hold the office of the President, Cory was a homemaker who supported Ninoy throughout this political career. When he was killed, she was reluctant to enter politics, but after one million signatures supporting her bid for presidency, she agreed to run for office.She did not have an easy task ahead of her: abolishing the 1973 constitution in operation during martial law, restoring the bicameral Congress, breaking the monopoly of Marcos’ supporters, and facing down military coups, among others. But she bore all these with grace and refused re-election when her term came to an end. In 1992, after the new president was sworn in, she drove away in a modest Toyota Crown.<div>MARTYRS OF WAR</div>In 1991, a P1000 banknote was issued for the first time, containing the composite portraits of heroes martyred by the Japanese Armed Forces in World War II.Jose Abad Santos, Josefa Llanes Escoda and Vicente Lim. During Quezon’s exile in Washington, Abad Santos chose to remain in the Philippines for his family and countrymen. He was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Secretary of Finance, Agriculture and Commerce. He refused to cooperate with the Japanese government and was shot to death on May 7, 1942.Escoda’s body was never found since her disappearance on January 1945. Some say she was killed along with her husband, Antonio, who supported rebels against the Japanese and was imprisoned in Fort Santiago.But Escoda left an impressive trail of achievements: she established Red Cross chapters around the country, founded the Boy’s Town of the Philippines and also the Girls Scouts of the Philippines, and was well-known for advocating women’s rights including the right to vote.Lim served as an army general and was the first Filipino to graduate from West Point, the premier United States Military Academy. He commanded the 41st Infantry Division in Bataan, where the Japanese met the stiffest resistance until they had to surrender due to lack of reinforcements.He was on the way to Negros Island where a submarine was waiting to take him to General Douglas MacArthur when he was captured by the Japanese forces. He was pronounced missing in 1944 until a Japanese-American eyewitness revealed that Lim, along with 50 or so guerilla members, was beheaded and buried in a Chinese cemetery.While they served in different branches of government, and their personal histories did not cross, the 3 are true heroes of the resistance against the Japanese occupation.

As we mark another National Heroes' Day, it’s an opportune time to look back and remember the men and women who laid down their lives for our country.

As we mark another National Heroes' Day, it’s an opportune time to look back and remember the men and women who laid down their lives for our country.