This bank has got art

UCPB marks 48th anniversary with an exhibit of priceless art treasures

By PAM BROOKE A. CASIN

United Coconut Planters Bank, Makati (Photo by PINGGOT ZULUETA)

MANILA, Philippines -- Solid grey walls, huge glass panels, the insipid smell of freshly waxed floors, and men and women in their power suits aren’t necessarily that welcoming to guests, to say the least. Add to that standoffish scheme, however, some classic, colorful, quirky, and thought-provoking art pieces and you’d get a perfectly balanced setting to tickle anyone’s aesthetic fancy.

One such institution that has included art in its day-to-day operations is the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB). Over the years, it has acquired many a visual piece from different Filipino artists as a sign of support and great interest towards Filipino art and culture. Recently, the bank put up an exhibit showing off its priceless art collection at its Makati corporate headquarters to mark its 48th year in the business.

Titled ‘48 Treasures,’ the exhibit is a coming-together of 48 paintings and sculptures from various styles and periods—from classical realism of the 19th century to impressionism, from abstract expressionism to contemporary art, from modern to avant-garde opuses. Curated by Ross Capili, the exhibit portrayed “a sense of development of Philippine visual art and the evolving sentiment of Filipino artists through the years.”

Founded in 1963, the bank, as it was gradually becoming a recognized institution in its field, felt the need to acknowledge its corporate responsibility of preserving national heritage, and it did so by amassing paintings and sculptures in earnest in the late ‘70s. Since then, many of the artworks in the bank’s private collection have become cultural treasures, seeing as their creators either have been conferred National Artists or have made great strides and contributions in the local art scene.

Important pieces in the bank’s private collection and that have been made public in the exhibit were Felix Resurrección Hidalgo’s ‘La Gitana’ (a 124-year-old oil painting of a barefooted gypsy draped in red and sheer clothing seemingly waiting for someone’s return); Fernando Amorsolo’s ‘Elias Picnic’ (the artist’s quintessential impression of rural Philippines); Vicente Manansala’s vibrant wall mural commissioned by the bank called ‘The Coconut Industry.’

Pieces that have made it to the exhibition are works of Napoleon Abueva, Federico Aguilar Alcuaz, Angelito Antonio, Antonio Austria, Manny Baldemor, Jose Blanco, Eduardo Castrillo, Roberto Chabet, Danny Dalena, Antipas Delotavo, Victorio Edades, Ramon Estella, Romulo Galicano, Anita Magsaysay-Ho, Venancio Igarta, Raul Isidro, Jose Joya, Ang Kiukok, Raul Lebajo, Cesar Legaspi, Diosdado Lorenzo, Arturo Luz, Edsel Moscoso, Jerry Elizalde Navarro, Justin Nuyda, Romulo Olazo, Onib Olmedo, Galo Ocampo, HR Ocampo, Victor Oteyza, Leon Pacunayen, Jorge Pineda, Ricarte Puruganan, Cenon Rivera, Rodolfo Ragodon, Manuel Rodriguez Sr., Nena Saguil, Rodolfo Samonte, Juvenal Sansó, Mauro Malang Santos, Solomon Saprid, Romeo Tabuena, Hugo Yonzon, and Fernando Zobel.

While the bank has already showcased notable works from its repertoire, guests, clients, and art enthusiasts alike can still expect more this year, as the bank will continue to put up monthly exhibits of its collection (which, according to UCPB executives, is now numbering at over 500 pieces).

UCPB’s corporate offices is located at 7907 Makati Avenue, Makati City
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BSP resolves coin supply shortage

By LEE C. CHIPONGIAN

 MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) continues to find ways to resolve and avert coin supply shortfalls owing to high demand for coins from banks.

In a report, the BSP said it has averted a projected shortfall in the supply of coins last year, and these supply constraints resulted from either the public hoarding of coins or delivery delays from outsourced mint makers. It noted that an artificial shortage of coins may occur because of the common practice by people of keeping coins idle in bank vaults, drawers, piggy banks, and not re-circulating them.

The volume of coins released in 2010 was lower than demand, which for banks located in Metro Manila, was 1.18 billion pieces. The BSP had enough supply of 10-piso coins but had a slight shortfall in the smaller coin denominations.

The BSP, which outsource coin blanks, have been resolving yearly supply constraints for coins since 2007. However officials noted an artificial scarcity due to the high demand for 1-piso and 25-sentimo coins. “This could be traced to the slow recirculation of coins which led banks to demand more coins from the BSP,” said the report submitted to the Monetary Board.

The central bank is implementing measures to avoid artificial scarcity of coins in the future. During consultation meetings with BSP regional offices, one of the causes for the poor recirculation of coins was the use of coins as tokens for so-called ‘automated tubig machines’ video games and videoke machines. Coins were also used as accessories, kept inside churches, piggy banks, and even melted for metals.

To improve the recirculation of coins, the BSP is intensifying the ‘Tulong Barya Para sa Eskwela’ program. In the last two years (2008 to 2010) the BSP said the program has successfully recirculated almost six million coins. Last year along, some P7 million worth of coins have been deposited under the program. So far since it started in 2006, the program has collected P14-million worth of coins.

In its 2010 annual report, the BSP said its mint and refinery operations delivered a total of 582.02 million pieces of circulation coins. The demand from banks for coins last year totaled 1.1 billion pieces.

The BSP will demonetize all denominations of coins in preparation for new designed coins for circulation beginning next year. The New Generation Currency banknotes in all six denominations were introduced in December last year.

Bangladesh woman takes ‘attacker’s’ penis to police

Agence France-Presse

DHAKA, Bangladesh – A 40-year-old Bangladeshi woman cut off a man’s penis during an alleged attempted rape and took it to a police station as evidence, police in a remote part of Bangladesh said Monday.

The woman, a married mother of three, was attacked while she was sleeping in her shanty in Jhalakathi district, some 200 kilometres (120 miles) south of Dhaka, on Saturday night, officers said.

“As he tried to rape her, the lady cut his penis off with a knife. She then wrapped up the penis in a piece of polythene and brought it to the Jhalakathi police station as evidence of the crime,” police chief Abul Khaer told Agence France Presse.

The woman has filed a case accusing the man — who is also 40 and a married father of five — of attempted rape, saying that he had been harassing her for six months.

The severed penis has been kept at the police station and the rape suspect was undergoing treatment in hospital.

“We shall arrest him once his condition gets better,” Khaer added.

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Visions and revisions

By: Conrado de Quiros

Philippine Daily Inquirer

P-noy isn’t making things worse, economically or otherwise, but he’s missing a lot of chances to make things better. While it’s true enough that “’pag walang corrupt, walang mahirap” (where there are no plunderers, there are no paupers), it’s even truer that pag walang pagbabago, walang saklolo(where there is no transformation, there is no salvation).

Arguably, a government that’s not corrupt, or less so than the previous one, is already an epic change. A government that you trust, or do not distrust as badly as the previous one, is already an epic change. But it is not enough. What the public expects from the P-Noy government is even more epic, simply because what it did to bring it to power was just as epic. It was not the brilliance of those who are currently in power that brought them to power, or heaven forbid their campaign managers. It was the brilliance of the people. They were the ones who had the eyes to see P-Noy was “the one,” they were the ones who had the heart, or balls, to make him so.

They do not just expect him to be virtuous, they expect him to be courageous. They do not just expect him to do things differently, they expect him to do things heroically.

Diverting a huge portion of the budget to doles isn’t doing things heroically, even if it’s doing things differently. At the very least that is so because it raises suspicions of dividing spoils to favor favorites, or worse of allowing those same favorites to campaign this early for 2013. Doles are the best way to buy votes. But doles do not check joblessness, they do not even check poverty. Not in the long run, not even in the short run.

At the very most that is so because the same money could have been spent for emergency employment. That is a time-honored way of getting out of the rut of exceedingly bad times, or since we’ve been in that perpetual state anyway at least of checking worsening poverty. That was what Franklin Roosevelt did during the Great Depression. He opened up millions of emergency jobs in public works, quite apart from giving relief to the unemployed. Spending for public works practically disappeared during the last few years of Gloria’s rule.

Just as well, you want to subsidize, subsidize agriculture. Or more specifically, subsidize the farmers.

Agriculture doesn’t just provide food for the table, it provides employment—or self-employment, or livelihood—for most Filipinos. The neglect—no, abandonment—of agriculture is one of the biggest sources of poverty in this country. Who wants to farm now? Even the rice terraces have gone to pot, and I don’t mean marijuana (though I could be wrong), for lack of people wanting to till land anymore. Farming brings nothing. With importation being regarded as the cheapest way to get rice (it is not in the long run), the Arroyo government relegated farmers to the status of beggars.

Without seeds, fertilizer, insecticide, irrigation, and whatever else a farmer needs to grow things, and having a rice cartel ripping them off on the price of their harvest after they have paid more than their due to usurers, what else is left? They can’t even afford to buy their own rice. The last thing farmers want is for their children to follow in their muddy footsteps. The first is to go abroad and become OFWs. I’ve heard a lot of comments recently about today being the best time to try to attract investors in agriculture. I’m all for it. But first invest in the farmers. No farmers, no agriculture. No farming, no employment.

Food security, or food sovereignty as it is called now, should be on top of the list. It is so even in countries that can afford to import food a hundred times over. It is so in the United States, it is so in Europe, it is so in Japan. These are countries that heavily subsidize their agriculture, these are countries that heavily protect their agriculture, WTO notwithstanding. We’d be fools not to do so. Especially in our case—a fact that cannot be sufficiently belabored—where farming doesn’t just put food on the table but puts work in the hands of most Filipinos.

And finally, I cannot for the life of me understand why this government isn’t using People Power to power the country to the 21st century. People Power doesn’t just mean toppling governments, it can also mean building a nation. Proof of it is the very existence of this government itself. This is a government that came to power on an Edsa masquerading as an election. This is a government that came to power on the strength of People Power masquerading as voters. People Power is the one awesome weapon P-Noy has that his predecessor did not have. It is the one awesome weapon P-Noy has that his predecessor strove desperately to find but could not.

But he’s not using it.

Efren Peñaflorida has already shown whole new vistas of what is possible if you can harness the spirit of voluntarism and make it a partner in governance. The “kariton classroom” is one of the most inspired inventions in this country, and I don’t know why it cannot be made to sprout like mushrooms by the Department of Education and other private groups. The “kariton classroom” points the way out of the rut and how to get there. That is by educating the country, that is by teaching the masa to read and write, that is by bringing the light of learning to the poorest of the poor. And that is by bringing learning to them and not by forcing them to go to it. That is the only way you can stop ignorance, that is the only way you can stop joblessness, that is the only way you can stop poverty. The enlightened does not ask, “What job can I find today?” The enlightened asks, “What work can I do today?”

No, this government isn’t making things so much worse, it’s just not making things so much better. As it should.

Senator wants 6-hour work for public school teachers

• Saturday, May 28, 2011

MANILA -- A lawmaker sought lesser hours to be devoted by public school teachers in classroom and administrative tasks each day.

Senator Manny Villar filed Senate Bill 2454, providing a six-hour workday for public school teachers and exempting them from compliance with the regular eight-hour duty.

Besides higher pay, the senator said teachers have been clamoring for shorter working hours, since their current work schedule allegedly leaves them stressed out and exhausted.

Reducing the number of working hours, Villar said, will allow teachers to have more time to innovate and enhance classroom teaching. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)