Yesterday, as I trod the same beaten path, I saw it again glistening, as if proudly announcing its presence or perhaps shouting "Pick me up! Pick me up!" I didn't. Instead, I took out my cellphone and took a picture of this one lowly singko, with a blog post running in my mind.
I asked myself questions once I reached my shop. What has happened to the singko? Why didn't anyone picked it up? Why didn't I picked it up? Is singko dying? Or worst, is it already dead? Has it reached the same fate as its younger sibling, the sentimo (1c)?
My lola used to tell stories about how valuable the Philippine currency was then. With an exchange rate of only P2 for every dollar, our economy was solidly backed up by gold reserves. I don't know why we shifted from that currency to paper currency, but I think it was a wrong move. Look at the British pound, its stronger than the US dollar because it is backed up by gold reserves. My professor in college once told us, the future of economies will be foretold with the currency circulating, the more coins, the sturdier the economy.
Basing on that statement, I think the Philippine economy is going to the dogs.
But before I bore you, I don't want to make a mess with the economics.
Why are we avoiding the Philippine coin?
Why are supermarkets and the likes tagging their products like, 19.95, when in fact, you won't get the 5 cent change? Even if you get that change, it won't be accepted by other stores. I salute the big supermarket chains for supplying us 5cent coin, but i seems it has only legal tender on their stores. Bring it to other stores and they will give you that same look of disgust, as if trying to say, "and cheap mo".
Try to give 5cent to kids who will be disturbing you again come Christmas time with their off tune carols, and surely enough they'll thank you followed by the tagline, "Ang babarat ninyo!", even if you gave them 5 cent. You get the same response from them as if you didn't give them any.
Try to open up an account with a bank for 5 cents, and they'll frown at you, if you're lucky, or haul you out of the bank by security if you look like something else.
My lola once told me, "Di ka makakabuo ng piso, kung wala kang singko". I think it still hold true but if you have 95 cents and picked up a 5 cent, what will it buy you? Assuming that they'll accept your loose change.
I guess like all heroes we enshrine on its face, it will soon be forgotten. Forever lost in value until an archeologist dig it up in a thousand years and make a whole mountain of money from their finds.
But it is sad to note that the portraits that once was there is gone. Lapu-lapu once grace the sentimo. Melchora Aquino, the singko. Both of them forgotten for their contribution to our freedom, because we chose to ignore the coins that graced their portraits. Well the Philippine central bank should take the blame for that, they chose to remove their faces along with the diyes sentimos with Francisco Baltazar. Instead they just placed the denomination and some kind of fish. U smell something fishy there. Does the coin designer have an axe to grind to these heroes?
I was planning a new mission in life, that I will be picking up ALL 5 cent coins that come my way. Maybe even conducting a social experiment and document the mission, but upon returning to the place of the lowly singko, it is gone.
Maybe, someone did care.
