The Philippines » Bohol Philippines

New Designs For New Generation

Tony Sulat — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 13:49:46 +0000

Philippine Money Have New Look

Due to frequent and uncontrolled proliferation of the counterfeit current Philippine money, the Bango Sentral ng Pilipinas or BSP have decided to force retirement of the twenty five(25) year old design of Philippine money to counter those who loves to counterfeit the Philippine money. This time, the design will be hard to mimic.

From twenty pesos (Php.20),fifty pesos(Php.50), one hundred pesos (Php.100), two hundred pesos (Php. 200), five hundred (Php. 500) and into one thousand pesos (Php. 1000) the redesign has been imposed. All these Philippine peso bills with their new designs have all on their reverse sides the Philippines top tourist spots. Take for example on one hundred pesos (100) bill on its reverse side there you will see Mt. Mayon and the Butanding or whale shark of Donsol Sorsogon Philippines; while on the two hundred peso (200) there you will behold the tarsier of Bohol Philippines as Bohol’s chocolate hills; With five hundred peso (500) bill, the face of former Philippine president Corazon Aquino is now together with the face of her late husband Benigno Aquino. But the rest of the front side of the Philippine peso bills, except for five hundred pesos (500) the person featured on respective Philippine money remains still.

New and Former design of Philippine 200 bill

These new designed Philippine money is out this month that will eventually eclipse the former design in the future.

New Philippine 200 bill with old face

However, recently these new designs on Philippine bills have spark controversy because of some errors in designs like :

(1) Not correct color of the rare native bird in the Philippines – the blue napped parot.

(2) Wrong placement of Unesco World Heritage Site -Tubbataha Reefs Nature Park- as well as Palawan’s St. Paul’s subterranean river,which is also a soon to be Unesco World Heritage Site because it is an entry for the new seven wonders of the world.

(3) Batanes Group of Islands was included on the Philippine map

Let us just hope that these errors on new designs will be corrected as soon as possible lest the efforts and money put forth for it will be wasted away and the counterfeiting of the old designs of the Philippine money will continue to flourish.

Money is important as we all know it but it is also important what is represented on be represented rightly for if it is poor represented or not properly represented, the design could be a breeding ground for more counterfeit money to be counterfeited because of its erroneous designs though they are new fresh designs. The design also on the money represents what country this money is being used and what country is the money, thus correct designation and representation should be carefully admonish so that there would be no any problems that will arise from such representation.

But some will say, “It is just a design”. Yes, it is just a design but this design on the money you are using is not “just” only, it matters as I discussed above. For without proper design and representation in the money, money can be exploited or use anywhere in the world without any security protocols or security precautions that can be incurred on using such money that has no any representation whose money is it. Imagine using money without any designs and representation on it?

The designs and representation on the money shows the limitations and restrictions on the usage of the money of where only it should be used and should not be used. The designs and representations draws a line how it will be used by the user of it.

A Thousand Hills in Bohol in the Philippines

The Philippines — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:23:49 +0000

Mounted naturally in the fields of Bohol Philippines is the well known a thousand hills in the Philippines that is the Chocolate Hills of Bohol. Yes, so far as the latest survey, the hills are estimated 1,776 in numbers. That is really a thousand hills on a 50 square kilometer terrain.

The Chocolate Hills is actually the third National Geological Monument of the Philippines and is being proposed to include at UNESCO World Heritage list. This is so because the Chocolate Hills is one of a kind in the world and it is naturally formed not like the Pyramids of Egypt which are man-made only. For every one who views it personally were really amazed that these hills were not man-made or were done by nature.

The hills are cone-shaped like hills with mixture of brown (the chocolate-color ground) and green (The grassy parts) color. However, its chocolate-colored ground stand outs more that it grassy part, thus they are called Chocolate hills, that is because of their chocolate color. Some who personally visits it says that their shapes are almost relatively symmetrical, thus every tourist has the reason to exclaim “wow” about their beauty. The Chocolate hills are a rolling haycock hills and said to be compose of limestones within them. Their grassy parts have a grass species like Imperata cylindrical, Saccharum spontaneum, and some ferns.

The Chocolate Hills are said to be like the Karst Hills similar to Slovenia and Croatia, however, the Chocolate Hills does not have caves. Their existence is being compared or studied in accordance to Karst theory. You can google about the Karst theory if you wanted to know about this theory. However, there are also legends about their formations, that is it is said that a two feuding giants throw mud, hurled rocks, sand, etc to one another until they finally exhausted and end up their feuding issue.

The flat land in between the hills is being used for vegetation purpose where rice and other crops were planted on it. For these hills were distributed throughout the towns of Carmen, Batuan, and Sagbayan in Bohol Philppines. However, it is mostly concentrated at the town of Carmen. Actually, there is a government owned resort at Carmen Bohol where you can view the Chocolate Hills that is the “Chocolate Hills Complex” where you can view the hills. But, you can also view them at Sagbayan Town at “Sagbayan Peak”,a resort at Sagbayan Bohol.

The “Chocolate Hill Complex” is originally a two hills which were developed into a resort and viewing facility. The higher hill has viewing deck which you can view the Chocolate hills in a 360 degree view. Similarly, the “Sagbayan Peak of the town of Sagbayan also offers similar viewing angle with the exception only that at Sagbyan Peak you can also view the sea coast of Cebu city Philippines.

The Chocolate Hills is already a famous tourist destination long before the popularity of white sand beaches in the Philippines come into consciousness of the world about Philippine Tourism. It is already then the flagship Philippine tourist destination.

May Festivities in the Philippines

The Philippines — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:41:14 +0000

Like the month of April in the Philippines, a Philippine May festivity also starts at very first day of the month. But May 1 is not a really boisterous festivity in the Philippines, for as we know it, it is a Day of all the workers not only in the Philippines but also to other countries in the world. It is day of political and social demonstration of the workers who wanted to voice out their voice to their respective governments. Most Filipino workers take advantage also of this special day to protest complains.

Coincide with this May 1 Labor Day demonstration and protests of the workers of the Philippines, is an Aliwan Grand Fiesta celebration being held at CCP Complex at Roxas Boulevard, Manila Philippines celebrating the Philippines’ 16 Regions in all grandest with floats and carnival-style parades, fireworks, and all the pride products of the 16 Regions of the Philippines all in displayed.

Moreover, alongside with this Aliwan Grand Fiesta celebration at Roxas Boulevard Manila Philippines is a similar float parade competition at Davao Oriental Philippines. This May 1 Davao celebration is called “Davao Gulf Regatta”. This celebration features decorated bancas and vintas in celebration of Davao gulfs.

May 1 is also the start of Flores de Mayo or Santacruzan in the whole month of May in the Philippines. All the regions of the Philippines held this kind of parade procession. It is the reenactment of Queen Elena of Constantinople in her search for the holy cross of Jesus. Queen Elena is said to be collecting all the memorabilia of Jesus. Similar with this religious festivity that is also held during May 1 is the Antipolo Pilgrimage which is held at Antipolo Rizal. This religious festivity is a long pilgrimage or like the santacruzan, from Manila Philippines to Antipolo Philippines. It is religious pilgrimage for Our Lady of Good Voyage.

Another solemn festivity during May 1 in the Philippines is the Viva Vigan Festival of the Arts held, of course at Vigan City Philippines, Ilocos Sur Philippines. It is a festival commemorating and reminiscing the history and cultural treasures of Vigan City.

May 1 festivity in the Philippines does not end at Vigan City, it still extends to Calape Bohol Philippines that celebrates Pahinungod Festival, the Pilipinyan Festival at Tagaytay city Philippines, the Balangay Festival at Butuan City Philippines, the 100 Island Festivals at Aliminos Pangasinan Philippines, the Araw ng Santiago at Santiago city Philippines, the Pista ng Produktong Pilipino at Subic, Olongapo City Philippines, the Boa- Boahan “Alinsangan “ Festival at Nabua Camarines Sur Philippines, and the Magayon Festival which celebrates Mt. Mayon at Albay Philippines.

Following the May 1 festivity is Dayaw Dalan Festivity held during May 2 at San Jacinto Ticao Philippines, simultaneous with Holy Cross Festival at Alitagtag and Baun Batangas Philippines. Then on May 3 the Carabao-Carroza Festival is held at Iloilo city Philippines where of course decorated carroza being pulled by carabaos. On May 3 also is the Feast of the Holy Cross held at Sta. Cruz Marinduque Philippines.

Like May 1, May 3 also is full of festivity in the Philippines aside from what I mention above,on May 3 also the Sublian Festival is held at Batangas City Philippines as well as the Garlic Festival at Sinait Ilocos Sur Philippines.