A week ago today, the national hierarchy of the Bank of the Philippine Islands flew to Cebu to fulfill a promise made to Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, the setting of a library open to the public and dedicated to business and financial education. The occasion, although subdued and private to a certain extent, was graced by no less than BPI Chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, BPI President Cezar Consing as well as the bank’s former president, Aurelio Montinola III, on whose tenure the library project (and much earlier, the BPI Cebu Museum) began.
The spacious, fully air-conditioned and carpeted library is located at the top floor of the neoclassical BPI building in Magallanes that also houses the museum. It is jointly managed by the University of San Carlos Libraries and BPI. Books from both USC and the Filipinas Heritage Library in Makati are now on its shelves and ready for the public to browse. The library is also completely wired into cyberspace and a set of computers are available to the general public who want to surf the Net or to read electronic books and magazines. The bias for business and financial management and education means that the major holdings of the library are books and magazines about making money. But there are also general fiction and books for children (I saw a full collection of Hardy Boys books which I last read when I was in Grades 3 and 4 at the library of Cebu Christian School, now Philippine Christian Gospel School).
The mezzanine leading to the library, meanwhile, was dedicated to Supreme Court Chief Justice Marcelo Fernan, whose portrait, donated by the family, hangs prominently on the wall leading to where he spent his early years as a lawyer together with his father Judge Wencesalo Fernan. Both were lawyers of BPI, the latter having practiced law after a long career in the judiciary. The space is now occupied by lawyer Alicia Bathan, Justice Fernan’s associate at the same office.
To cap the occasion, a 308-page coffee-table book about the evolution of money in the Philippines was also launched. This column is a biased source about this particular book, entitled “Salapi: The Numimastic Heritage of the Philippines”, because I am a coauthor together with BPI assistant vice-president Carlos L. Apuhin, who also manages its General A. Maxilom Branch. Nonetheless, let me lift some sections of my preface to the book to give you an idea about its contents:
“The main title ‘Salapi’, the Bisayan and Tagalog generic word for all kinds of money, grounds this book not just with the introduction and popularization of coinage in the colonial era but also with the full knowledge that the Philippines had a variety of barter currencies that allowed many parts of the archipelago to become favorite destinations of Chinese, Arab and other Asian merchants way before the colonial yoke patched together what would have been different and disparate nations with differing visions of the future. “The coins and cash contained in this book are, in a sense, the best evidence of the trajectories of history that has brought the Philippines to where it is at present. And it is thus heartwarming that a bank that has seen so much of the ebbs and flows of our history has seen fit to recognize our common heritage by way of this book.
“…It helped that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Money Museum had a spectacular collection that covers pretty much the entire numismatic history of the country and even the pre-numismatic era of barter. And its splendid and as-yet unexhibited collection of trial proofs and color proofs of BPI fiduciary currency of 1883 and 1896 was a joy to behold. This, complemented with BPI’s own collection of bills of exchange, made the task all the more enjoyable instead of daunting. Still, I would like to believe that Divine Providence had a hand in bringing in an indefatigable photographer who also serves as the vice-president for finance of the University of San Carlos where I work, Fr. Generoso Rebayla, Jr., with whom I have worked in previous book projects. Both he and my coauthor Caloy did the photography that one finds in all the seven chapters of this thick volume.”
The book is published by the BPI Foundation (for which I am forever grateful to its executive director, the BPI senior vice president Florendo ‘Randy’ Maranan) and is now available to the public at the price of P3,000, proceeds of which will go to the BPI Museum Cebu. For those who want to peruse a copy of the book, it may be helpful to visit BPI Cebu Library or drop by at the BPI Maxilom Avenue Branch where my coauthor, Carlos Apuhin, holds fort. You can even have him sign your own personal copy of the book, after buying one, of course.
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