History Comes Alive 2 follows the huge success of History Comes Alive 1. Huge success means, in movie’s definition, a BLOCKBUSTER HIT that when I arrived on the venue, a large group gathered near the entrance and more overwhelming crowd in the lobby. Fortunately, I bought ticket earlier and saved me a side-front seat.
His first lecture entitled “Mukhang Pera! Banknotes and Nation” explores, as explained by the lecturer himself, why particular individuals are chosen and not chosen as the face on the banknotes and how banknotes reflect the history, ideals and culture of a nation. As his lecture poster aptly describes:
“Banknotes are so common, we see and use them daily, but we rarely notice the pictures and text that are on them. After this lecture, you will never look the money the same way again.”
Philippine Banknotes
A professor known for his humor, he didn’t let this opportunity slip away without starting his lecture with a hearty laugh. During his stint as Chairman of National Hysterical Commission, as he fondly calls the National Historical Commission (NHI), the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas once sought his opinion regarding a request from a group who pride themselves as “Pangitiin si Ninoy Movement”. They were requesting the BSP to change Ninoy's unsmiling photo, which the group thought to be unlucky, to a smiling photo in the 500 peso bill. Did BSP heed their request? Yes! BSP yielded to their request that our new 500 peso bill bears both Ninoy and Cory smiling.
Old 500 peso
New 500 peso
On the side note, Professor Ambeth added that BSP could be sued for copyright infringement because the old Ninoy Photo was taken from Asiaweek Magazine cover photo without any permission. Former President Cory Aquino handed the magazine cover to BSP Officials when they requested her photo of him. Cory quipped it was her favorite photo. As the Philippines just started rebuilding herself after Marcos regime, the BSP took no effort to get permission to print the unsmiling photo.
These are the interesting facts surrounding the old and new 500 peso bills shrouded by the error on the bird's beak color found at the back of new 500 peso bill, which I wouldn't learn if not for this lecture or Professor Ambeth himself.
Professor Ambeth also made us noticed this interesting fact on our 200 peso bill. The 200 peso bill has an image of a living President at the back of it. It simply show how money reflects the current situation of our country. It was around this time that Gloria took the position of a President via People Power 2. She wasn't the original. Trying hard, Copy cat. Another former President had taken this route and placed his inauguration photo, at the historical Barasoain Church, at the back of of his newly created denomination - the 2000 peso bill. The 2000 peso bill wasn't circulated because he was overthrown by the same person who followed his ludicrous idea.
The succeeding anecdote is totally unrelated to banknote but I ought to share it to everyone because of its importance and relevance to history. He shared to his audience the unreliability of Philippine History textbook, which from time to time, I hear Mr. Antonio Calipjo Go's call for action to correct wrong grammar and erroneous information found in most Philippine textbooks. It has been known, since elementary, that Philippines has 7,107 islands but according to Professor Ambeth, he could not find any reference materials to support it. That's when he called NAMRIA (National Mapping and Resource Information Authority) and asked the general knowledge question "how many islands are in the Philippines?" NAMRIA has no definite answer on this question. In short, where do we get the idea that Philippines has 7, 107 islands when the people or agency who are expected to know this fact do not have answer or clue.
Old Philippine Backnotes
What makes his lecture engaging was the way he presented it. He started most of his discussion with a funny anecdote then relates it to the discussion. This is a classic example of Filipinos who love to laugh. If you want to capture the Filipino audience, you must learn to make intellectual jokes, not dirty jokes.
The following anecdotes were selected because it would take so much space if I included everything besides the point, I am writing this from memory. The first anecdote refers to the early forms of money in the Philippines, involving an old rich woman who wore golden accessory of our ancestor as earrings or necklaces in one event. Unknown to the old woman, those golden accessory are used by our male ancestor as an accessory for their private organ. If the woman knew the former usage, I doubt that she would wear it as earring or necklace.
Another anecdote involved two government officials who on separate occasions demanded the removal of foreign influence/object on our money. One demanded the removal of US Flag in our 100 peso bill while the other demanded the removal of Gen. McArthur in newly released 50 peso bill. Professor Ocampo defended that:
- Philippine and US flag found on 100 peso bill symbolizes the American’s recognition of Philippine independence wherein Philippine flag flies higher than the American flag;
- and Gen. McArthur should not be taken a single entity on the 50 peso bill because it symbolizes the historic event - Leyte Landing.
On the side note, he added that the famous photo of Leyte Landing was a re-enactment because on the day of the landing, there was no available photographer to capture this historic moment, and Gen. McArthur, wanted to be part of Philippine history, did the re-enactment the day after.
He also talked about an incident involving a BSP board member who said “Anong ginagawa ng dalawang tsonggong namamangka?” referring to two people on top of manununggul jar.
EU and Asian Banknotes
Euro Banknotes are perfect example on how money reflects the ideals and culture of one state or region. Professor Ambeth asked us to look closely the various images of doors and windows on the front side of Euro. He revealed that none of those images pertains to any landmark found in EU member countries. The door and window are chosen because it reflect openness - the idea the EU wants to project to the world. The back side shows bridges that relates to the connectivity of EU. Those images are pure product of imagination because Euro symbolizes EU member countries, hence, they must not patronize specific landmark. EU decided to imagine these symbols to prevent any national bias to associate EU to just particular country.
In some countries like Cambodia or Vietnam, money bore images of hammer and sickle, the symbol of communism. But when communism ended, the Cambodian and Vietnamese government simply removed the hammer and sickle design. On the other hand, Indonesian covered the head of a deposed leader with an Indonesian art.
Japanese Yen had old people ( I forgot the names) with big beard to serve as security feature and Thai Baht bore one image of ruler - Rama I to prevent any biases unlike Philippine money where some Presidents felt it as a privilege for money to bear an image of them.
Conclusion
Who would have thought that an ordinary thing like a money can reveal gargantuan information about the history, culture, ideals and future of a country or region. Those symbols and images found on the money are not simply placed because it will make the money look good. Instead, those symbols and images are products of various influences from Presidents to aspirations of the people.
In the Philippine case, through the anecdotes albeit funny, Money has revealed the saddening truth about the current state of Philippine History in Filipino minds. How most Filipinos are so ignorant with their history? From someone who flaunts her golden accessory to someone ignorant on Manununggul Jar, I shouldn't wonder why our neighbors are leaving us all behind. History is not as ingrained to Filipino minds as compared to other countries. History is not considered an important identity to Filipinos.
As Wall Street Journal's Bret Stephens wrote in defense to media coverage and big expenditures on Royal Wedding:
"Royalty is the most venerable embodiment of British tradition, tradition is the lifeblood of identity, identity generates social cohesion without resort to force, and social cohesion is the sine qua non of a viable polity."
Similar to Royalty in UK, Philippine history is "lifeblood" of the Filipino people and this "lifeblood" is what "generates social cohesion without resort to force, and social cohesion is the sine qua non of a viable polity." Thus, Philippine History, as far as most students know, is and will remain forever a subject in school unless we, Filipinos, begin to appreciate and understand our Philippine History.
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