Manuel Quezon’s New Face

Today’s lunch was just one of the usual lunch-at-work – lining up for food served in metal plates, waiting for minutes (or half an hour if not so lucky) to be served. Or so I thought it was. Not until Manuel L. Quezon came to my rescue from the dreadful boredom of the cafeteria. Yes! Manuel L. Quezon with his younger face being printed in the new P20 bill.

These new bank notes were released last third week of December 2010 just before Christmas. According to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) spokesperson Fe Dela Cruz, smaller denominations will be distributed first to banks, just in time for the aguinaldo during the season. They were expecting that all denominations will be distributed this month.  The targeted amount to be circulated by 2011 is roughly P2 billion pesos.

New safety measures were added to the bank notes which includes patches that changes color at 45-degree angle, micro-prints, and security threads. Embossed printing was also added for the vision-impaired. Made of 80% cotton and 20% abaca and with anti-bacterial quality, bills of higher denominations are expected to last for 3 years.

Source:

ABS-CBNnews.com

Sinulog’s Past

3.5M people were not fazed by the overwhelming rain last weekend in celebrating the Sinulog Festival. It was also said that this festival bridges the pagan past and the Christian belief of Cebuanos being depicted by dance. According to historians, Sinulog is a dance ritual offered to the miraculous image of Sto. Nino. Long before Magellan arrived in the Philippine shores, Filipinos have already celebrated this ritual to worship anitos and wooden idols.  44 years after, Miguel Lopez de Legaspi arrived in Cebu and started the Spanish colonization of the Philippines.  One of his soldiers, Juan Camus, found an image of Sto. Nino side-by-side with some wooden idols in a box in one of the bombarded huts. It was only then that Filipinos celebrated the festival not for their anitos but in honor of the miraculous image of Sto. Nino. It was not until 1980 that the first ever Sinulog parade was organized by then Regional Director of the Ministry of Sports and Youth Development (MYSD) David S. Odilao Jr.

(Miel and I spent the Sinulog weekend shopping  in one of the malls here in Cebu.  After eating out in The Old Spaghetti House, we came across this fun photo booth and took our pictures. )