Philippine Independence

Four days ago was my cousin’s death anniversary. She passed away the day us, Filipinos commemorate our 112^th National Independence. In the life story of Lazaro in the Holy Scripture, it tells us that it’s the dead people who pray for the living ones. Normally, majority of Filipinos have novenas for the dead souls. They believe that praying eagerly can send their dead love ones to heaven. But as far as my belief is concern, we don’t do that. Remembering her had brought us together to meditate God’s word and check our lifestyles.

In line with the celebration, I have participated in an exhibit by one of my fellow Davaweños. Collecting Philippine money is definitely a thing that he’s fond of. I got interested when a woman smiled at me and invited me to go in. Going in there wasn’t a waste of time. In fact, it helped me understand how Philippine money evolved through the effort of Central Bank of the Philippines. We were allowed to take some photos but since the collections were encased I didn’t get good ones.

In the exhibit, I found out that the Central Bank of the Philippines released a 100,000-peso bill with an extraordinary size in commemoration of the centennial year of Philippine Independence! The Guinness Book of Records acknowledges it. It was a limited edition though because 1000 pieces were only distributed that cost by about half a million pesos!

Among all the printed monetary bills, the ones that looked like a US dollar bill caught me by surprised! They look nearly the same as that of a dollar! The size, color and font used made it look almost the same!I don’t know how to call him but the guy who assisted me said the bills were made in Commonwealth period.However, the personalities who were printed in there differ of course.

Here’s the list of the denominations:

1-peso bill Apolinario Mabini

2-peso bill Jose Rizal

5-peso bill Gen. EmilionAguinaldo

10-peso bill Fr. Jose Burgos

20-peso bill Andres Bonifacion

30-peso bill Antonio Luna

50-peso bill Melchora Aquino

200-peso bill Pres. Manuel Quezon

500-peso bill Manuel Roxas

The above mention names are Filipino heroes. They have made remarkable acts that helped us regained our lost freedom. It’s them who made our lives good by exercising our rights as a Filipino citizen.

Furthermore, commemorative stamps were displayed as well featuring other Filipino martyrs and people who made Filipino people proud of we are. I saw the personalized stamps of The People’s Champ- Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao and the Aquino couples- Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. and Pres. Corazon “Cory” Aquino.

Mabuhay ang lahing Pilipino!