#banknote
Philippine banknote changes are afoot! I hope for the BSP rethink their design strategy of endangered fauna over heroic personages in the obverse. Diverse elements can always be seamlessly integrated if they belong in a coherent narrative. A banknote is a story in and of itself and not mere footnote of history.
It’s been eleven years since the inauguration of the Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas’ New Generation Currency Series of 2010. It is ideal to change the design of security features of bank notes after a decade or so to prevent counterfeiting. Please keep a copy of my medallic and numismatic design, the Order of Lakandula if you can. It is found on the 1000-peso banknote. I still got two 1000-peso notes with the Order of Lakandula image in circulation from the bank. I will keep them as design specimens, and do keep yours, too.
I was 27 years-old when Manuel ‘Manolo’ Quezon III tapped me to design for the national government back in 2002, under the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Historical Affairs which was under the Office of the President. It was fresh from receiving my second industry award for website design and development for the Lopez Museum and Library when he recruited me to collaborate with him on a life-changing project. To upgrade and contemporize the designs of the Republic and President/VP coats-of-arms and seals; which were originally designed by the great Galo B. Ocampo in 1946; and to design the medallic and numismatic requirements for a new civilian order for the country; which became one of the highest decorations of the nation, the Order of Lakandula. Among its conferments are to the Emperor of Japan Akihito (conferred by PNOY); the King Juan Carlos I and Crown Prince Felipe of Spain (conferred by PGMA); and the Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton (conferred by PNOY); and among others. It turned full circle when Captain Galo B. Ocampo (1913-1985) one of the great Triumvirates of Philippine Art (with Victor Edades and Botong Francisco) is conferred with the Order of Lakandula posthumously in 2015 in a ceremony at the National Museum of the Philippines presided by his current successor as museum director Hon. Jeremy Barns. The Filipino Historian Ambeth Ocampo is also a recipient of the Order of Lakandula.
The image of the Order of Lakandula is found as “Medal of Honor” in the one thousand-peso banknote of the Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas’ New Generation Currency series of 2010. It was the first national order to have its image featured in a Philippine banknote. Eventually deemed ‘mislabeled’ and also ‘out of context’ with the three featured heroes (Jose Abad Santos, Vicente Lim, Josefa Llanes Escoda, the heroes and martyrs of World War II) and thus the image of the medal was removed in 2017. The latest conferment of the Order of Lakandula was in 2019 by PPRD to Filipino Chinese Dr. Henry Lim Bon Liong, the President of the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc.
It was a great honor, privilege, and experience having my design work included in the banknote for a long time before the banknote security design upgrade in 2017. But the Coat of Arms of the Republic of the Philippines found in all banknote denominations is that of my design.
My contributions to the national heraldry, medallic, and numismatic designs will be there for a long long time as it is mandated by law and in use by the Philippine Government for honor and protocol. Unless the laws are changed, or the existing form of government is changed, or if there will be a call for a plebiscite to change the symbols of the nation.
