Nelson Morales

PHLPost brings handwritten letters back into the spotlight

Article (news)

Francis Orcio

ABS-CBN News

Amid the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and the bustle of hundreds of local brands, the Philippine Postal Corporation is inviting festival-goers to slow down, put pen to paper, and reconnect with the tradition of sending handwritten letters.PHLPost is bringing its postal services and collectibles to the Biyaya Sustainable Living Festival and Manila Coffee Festival at the SM Megatrade Halls in Mandaluyong City from July 17 to 19.Under the theme “Kape. Kwento. Koreo.,” visitors to the PHLPost booth may write and mail letters or postcards, create personalized stamps bearing their own photographs, apply for a Postal ID, purchase philatelic merchandise, and drop off letters and parcels for delivery.PHLPost Business Lines Manager Mara Beatrice Gervacio said the corporation joined the festival to make its services more accessible, while reminding the public that handwritten correspondence remains meaningful despite the convenience of digital communication.“&#x27;Di ba we have coffee, sometimes we don&#x27;t just invite people and say, let&#x27;s have coffee. It connotes na, hey, I wanna catch up with you. Hey, I wanna know how you&#x27;ve been doing. It&#x27;s also the same as handwritten letters kasi,” Gervacio said.“I know we&#x27;ve had the digital means right now through SMS, anything instant. But iba pa rin iyong feeling when you do handwritten notes or letters, postcards. It gives you not just a certain feeling of kinu-kumusta niya ako, pero ramdam mo, there&#x27;s warmth in it. Similar to coffee. When you ask them, kape tayo?” she added.Gervacio said both coffee and letters are associated with warmth, personal stories, and the desire to strengthen relationships.“I want to know how you&#x27;ve been doing. And there&#x27;s warmth here. It&#x27;s not just trying to connect, but also to have that form of bond. So we&#x27;re here to bring that service or to remind everyone that handwritten letters are still here,” she said.“And it gives us a certain level of novelty na iba yung nagagawa ng just sending a direct message or sending an email. Iba pa rin iyong handwritten letters,” she added.Among the booth’s main attractions is PHLPost’s Selfie Stamp, which allows visitors to place their photograph on a functional postage stamp that may be used to send mail.Gervacio said the service has drawn interest from visitors because it turns an ordinary personal photograph into a usable stamp and keepsake.“We can put your face in a stamp. And it&#x27;s usable. Pwede niyo siyang ipang-mail. And then it bears your face. So alam mo iyon, you&#x27;ll be part of history because Philately also is, you know, immortalizing or commemorating a certain piece of history,” she added.PHLPost also produced a limited-edition postcard for the festival, as visitors showed interest in writing and mailing personal messages.Aside from postcards and stamps, the booth carries shirts, mugs and other postal merchandise. Festival-goers may also submit Postal ID applications and drop off parcels, goods and letters for delivery.<div> </div><div>COFFEE, CULTURE, AND LIVELIHOOD</div>The PHLPost booth is part of a larger three-day gathering that brings together the Biyaya Sustainable Living Festival, Manila Coffee Festival, and the Coffee Expo Manila.Supported by SM for MSMEs, the event features more than 300 brands and 150 exhibitors, including coffee producers, local artisans, social enterprises, and sustainability advocates from across the country.&quot;The whole objective is to give highlights to the communities that we&#x27;re partnered with. The coffee communities, the weaving communities, the artisan communities, startups, pop-ups, coffee businesses, and of course partnered with SM community,” Festival Director and Coffee Heritage Project founder Rich Watanabe said.Beyond selling products, Watanabe said the festival seeks to recognize the year-round labor of farmers, artisans, and entrepreneurs.“And the most important thing, apart from showcasing their products, is to give recognition to the hard work that they put in all year, and with that to help us with, is our representative from the French organization, AVPA, who recognizes the produce and the coffees coming out from the communities,” he said.One of the festival’s highlights was a local awarding ceremony for Filipino producers recognized by the Paris-based Agency for the Valorization of Agricultural Products, or AVPA.AVPA Chief Operating Officer Ksenia Hleap said the organization presented awards to Philippine winners from its previous international competitions, ahead of its main awarding ceremony in Paris in September.“I&#x27;m here today because we are making the local award ceremony for Philippines winners this year. So our competition is international and the award ceremony is held in Paris in September. But today here I gave the awards for the Philippines winners from last year and this year,” Hleap said.<div> </div><div>ENCOURAGING A NEW GENERATION OF PRODUCERS</div>Watanabe said supporting local producers is particularly important, as many Filipino coffee farmers grow older and fewer young people choose to continue farming and other traditional livelihoods.&quot;Our coffee farmers are aging. And so, it&#x27;s very important to be able to hand it down to the next generation. And for the next generation to be encouraged to take it from the other generation is to have recognition and value to it,” he added.Giving value and visibility to the work of farming and artisan communities, he said, could encourage younger Filipinos to continue producing coffee, textiles, and other culturally important products.“And this is how it&#x27;s impacted a lot on our younger generation to work in the farms, work on the products, and work on weaving and textile. And because these are important parts of our culture as well, part of our identity,” Watanabe said.Hleap said international awards could strengthen the standing of Filipino producers in both domestic and overseas markets by providing an independent recognition of product quality.“It opens the doors in the neighborhood market as well. So when you want to export to the neighborhood market and you say that I have the medal from AVPA Gourmet Paris, it&#x27;s international recognition, so it&#x27;s like the gauge of the quality of this coffee,” she said.She also urged consumers to look beyond the finished cup and recognize the farmers, communities, and regions responsible for producing coffee.

Amid the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and the bustle of hundreds of local brands, the Philippine Postal Corporation is inviting festival-goers to slow down, put pen to paper, and reconnect with the tradition of sending handwritten letters.

Amid the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and the bustle of hundreds of local brands, the Philippine Postal Corporation is inviting festival-goers to slow down, put pen to paper, and reconnect with the tradition of sending handwritten letters.