Philippine Coinage

Philippine coinage is quite distinct from the rest, having thrived in 3 different worlds.  First from its Spanish colonial tutelage that lasted over 300 years, punctuated by 40 odd years of American rule, until 1946 when it was granted independence and had to learn to live on its own under a republic.

And oh what a ride it had been, leaving behind a treasure trove of memories and artifacts whose discoveries and collections could last lifetimes.

Beginning in the 1500’s Spain held away in the islands, and like true colonial powers then tried to suck dry the islands’ treasures and resources to pleasure the kingdom’s imperial elites and their prodigal tastes.  But like lazy imperialists, it never really tried to develop a distinct and separate identity for the archipelago, though it was named after one of its kings, King Phillip.  The Spanish currency system simply got extended to the islands, and beyond that, Spanish citizens intermingled with the rest of the population.  Making only one distinct imperial caveat.  If you were born in the mother country you were referred to as peninsulare, and insulare if born in the islands.   Anyway, the natives were thus blessed with the coinage of the realm sufficient to declare it as also their own.

At the turn of the 19^th century, the Americans came, via a one-sided war against the colonizers, and then pitted against the hapless natives, and ruled the islands with relative ease for some 40 odd years.  This time establishing a separate coinage system for the islands to give it distinct identity, though still a vassal of the new colonizer.  And wonder of wonders, the US established in the islands, the only (up to this day) mint located outside of continental US of A.  It was called the Manila mint and operated until the islands’ independence.

Then came 1946 and independence.  Since then, the republic has taken over its coinage, until the present time

Oligarchy in the 21st Century

 Unable to present credentialed bona fides, I take a rather simplistic and layman approach to the issue of oligarchy which hot topic has been trending not only locally by even in places like the US.

First of all, I take oligarchy simply to mean rule and influence of a few over others.  For simplicity’s sake, currently I take it to encompass four major areas, political oligarchy, economic oligarchy, academic oligarchy and media oligarchy.  The four do not necessarily reside in the same group, though invariably these vested interests are in close cooperation and share common interests.  And are deeply bound by affinity and unanimity of anointed goals and ideologies.

With this kind of generalized premise, we find this unholy situation in most parts of the globe, however shallow or deep in their stages of development certain places are.

In their numbers, we can identify and sort the many-flavored elitist groups that hold collective power and sway in the realm of business and government, and the polity.  They define their respective turf, enhance and fortify them, and wage battles over each other when threatening moves are made over their defined spheres of rule.

When certain members of one particular group are eliminated or curtailed, others take their place.  The powerless, non-minded and disjointed majority are left as awed spectators to observe and take sides to get their yeoman share of the crumbs thrown around.  They curry favors from these masters, unable to marshal forces and resources to fend for or survive on their own.  Sometimes they follow or are led blindly, fed with convoluted narratives that when exposed are divorced from realities and deleterious to their own common interests.

And this is basically how we find the world today since as far as memory allows.  And the cycle goes on and on, and unbroken.

A RETRACING OF THE PLAZANS: A Personal Account: The Early Juvenile Gang Years

Consider this brash first-person scribblings of a now hazy segment of a time past. It could have relevance and would make sense only to those people who figured in and shared with the carefree bucolic times during the idyllic youthful years in the old hometown. To them this little piece of nostalgic history is addressed and dedicated.

While some may have already reduced to print or committed to writing some accounts pertinent to what might loosely be called a retracing of the Plazans, if one is earnestly serious then one has to point deeper, especially into the early beginnings of the Plazans, and it necessarily will have to go way before the word itself even got into the vernacular.

Now, to really be all-inclusive about it, we could also trace even deeper into the earlier times when many adult residents also regarded Plaza Divisoria as their favorite trysting place, an unlikely haven where they could unwind, smoke, and even feel cool during hot summer nights. And maybe more expectedly, hear or exchange relevant news of the day. And since political gatherings typically originated in the plaza areas, then the plaza too was where political Demostheneses pitted and honed their oratorical and argumentative skills with others. The name of perennial mayoralty candidate Totong Pangan readily comes to mind. Thus many old-timers can also be counted as regular nocturnal denizens of the plaza.

And what's more, there was a point in time when a fire truck was stationed in the plaza at night time as a critical early warning device in the city's serious fire prevention program, the plaza being in the center of the poblacion. And so, nightly firefighters also allocated for themselves benches in the plaza during their graveyard duties.

But in my personal judgment, we should limit our little historical adventures to the kids and adolescents who served their voluntary stints as tenants of the plaza since we are after all tracing the evolution of the present connotation and definition of who or what a Plazan is.

As both participant and eyewitness to this unfolding development, I am attempting to recount the seminal events as they happened. And if we put a timeline, to the best of my recollections, we would have to go back to the year 1956, because that was when we first formed ourselves into a determinate group called a gang.

But the Bellboys predated us. This I know because they were already then quite formed and knitted closely; and had already claimed that part of Divisoria Plaza, the Andres Bonifacio section, as their usual meeting place and istambayan. Named after Freddie Bell and the Bellboys (featured in the 1956 movie, Rock Around the Clock, with Bill Haley and the Comets), their members were MicMic Roa, Billy Alegarbes, Bueno Pimentel, Nato Valmores, Tutti Neri, Patuting Neri, Baludoy Veluz, Roque Gaerlan, Tito Yee, Bong Cabe, Ed Chaves, and later on joined by Dixie Jongko, the last one at some point was also in our own gang.

We had formed our own, most of us a year or so younger than the Bellboys, and called ourselves Winchesters ‘73 (I like to take credit for the name because even that early Western movies had already cast a mesmerizing spell over me) The Western movie of the same title starred James Stewart and was made in 1950, and probably got shown in our local theatres some years later.

Our original members were a closely-knit group mostly classmates in Ateneo. We had Arturo Anolin, Nazar Chaves, Eddie Acero, Boy Fernandez, Babe Fortich, Ernie De Leon, Boy Ramos, Baby Ramos, Roy Gaane, me, of course, Dixie Jongko, Jaime Waga, Jessnar Falcon, Rogelio "Butch" Bagabuyo, and Nonie Rivera, forming the core group that met regularly; though at some point or other, we also had others joining in like Iraido Aguilar, even Filamer Artajo and Gerry Agbulos, Tonito Rivera and a few more.

For some inexplicable reason that part of Divisoria, where the Bonifacio monument stands, has always been regarded as the official locale of the groups that would later on be collectively called The Plazans. I suspect that because even then trees there were already mature and tall enough to provide the needed shade near the benches, it became the place of choice. And ideal locale for shielding us from the unyielding sun during the daytime and the equally harsh tun-og during the night. Add the fact that for the Bellboys that was the most convenient locale for them to meet. For members like Tito Yee who resided along Pabayo Street; Tutti along JR Borja; Billy Alegarbes and Patuting along Filipinas St.; Bong Cabe from Cogon Subdivision usually brought along his jeep; Roque from across City Hall; Ed Chaves, as with a number of us, along Victoria St. or thereabouts.

Thus, so it was that the Bonifacio monument became identified with the Plazans, though there are four other subdivisions of Divisoria Plaza, from the amphitheatre near the river to the Masaysay monument dead-ended by the Xavier University grounds.

And many a day and night, we spent huddled together astride the dirty concrete benches, telling our stories, amusing and regaling ourselves with funny anecdotes, and trying to fight the night cold by sharing cigarettes 50-50. And in this regard, Tito Yee was specially regarded because he always smoked the more expensive Philip Morris, compared to the cheaper brands like Winfield, Fatima, Snowman, Newport, etc. that everybody else smoked. In fine, in a grand display of carefree adolescent chatter and time killing best describes how we spent whiling away our idle hours.

Then as I recall our days in the Plaza started getting rarer and less frequent when most of us approached the waning months of 4th year high school and that would be in 1958. At least for me personally, how it eventually ended was when high school came to an excruciating end.

In this regard then, I enjoin the others to continue on with their own stories as Plazans, with the earnest hope that a complete chronology can be established. And thus make more meaningful and coherent, the past and ensuing reunions that are being held. Especially because as you may have noticed even in the few names that I have detailed, a number have already passed on.

Lastly, I shall post this entry also in my own personal blog. Thus visitors can leave comments of correction, clarification, or addition.

                                                                   000000000000

UPDATE  July 5, 2020

We have a list of other gangs with their members, as reported by those eyewitnesses who were also members of gangs.

Blue Boyz – Rogie Lim, Tom Aguirre, Billy Walter, Benjie and Edgar Gorospe, Maning and Jesus Roska, Tony and Nandy Rodriguez, Dolfo Dolores, and an unlikely, Pacifico “Dodong” Pelaez.

James Dean Gang – Harry Willkom, Popoy Martinez, Lionel Mandig, Garby Aguirre, Francis Rebolos, Ricky Jonayon, Bobby Mutia, Manoling Jaldon.

Remingtons (short-lived) – Pondol and Ronnie Dadole, Benjie Gorospe.

Stalag (after the movie, Stalag 17, starring William Holden) - Danzig Sambaan, Loloy Gaabucayan, Paking Mercado, Carlos Yamut, Rudy Avancena, Ben Chaves, Nap Tayanes, Yoyong Gabutina, , Andoy Kong, Loloy and Leo Pabayo, Tony Orqueza, ( to be continued)

Lunars

Leathernecks (later in time) – members coming from other gangs.

HiFi Gang -  Jose “PePe” Balaba, Monix Lim, Felix Almerol, Buddy Blanco, Adrian and Leo Pabayo, Fidel and Le Grande Saa, Orlando V. Neri, Ramon V. Neri, Apolinar “Boy” Velez, Victor Guitarte, Loloy Pimentel, Manny Valdehuesa,

                                                                      

                                                                        0000000000000000

Anonymous1/09/2023 10:59:00 AM

There was a younger group used to stnby at Dv Soria & along Filipinas st.,now T Chaves St. They were called THE PANTAK a fish family of HALUAN fish. 

They are The WILLKOM BROTHERS & cousins Joseph, George (Gemgem) Edgar Wilkom, Mike & Eddie Wilkom, Our mentors Russell & Gerald Willkom, Boy Laplap, Teddy Garcia, Tata Hernando, Bonbito Ruita, Ben Tan, Bebe Caharian, William Boy Willkom, Onching Roa, Sammy Ortes, Junsam Sambaan, Boy Pabillore & many, many more!

       

                                                                        00000000000000000000000000

UPDATE; March 12, 2023

Continuing the tracing of the history of the Plazans and the origin of the name itself, getting into the next decade after ours.  Plazan Francis Rebolos of New Mexico has now provided some account on the origin of the name.  Their gang (The Ruggeds) came in the decade of the 60's and Plazan Ricky Jonayon of Nazareth is now being attributed as the originator of the name Plazan(s).

Here is the account of Francis Rebolos in the vernacular addressing his comments to  viewers who asked:  

Ging, karon pa naku ni nabasa. Maayo sab nga nangutana ka ug ngano nga gitawag plazans. Its a long story pero to make it short nag sugod ni sa among grupo nga "Ruggeds" ang among stambayan ang Bonifacio,ang mga magulang namo dito sa Magasaysay, 

Adto nga time kaming mga Ruggeds dili na maayo ang dungog as labi nga si Ricky Jonayon pala away sige lang kita ug sumbagay, paregla ,out of control siya. Daghan na nanghawa kay lagi dautan na among dungog, mga babaye man labay sa divisoria singitan ug dili maayo, did-an na sa mga ginikanan mo tampo sa among grupo. 

So nag decide mi nga alisdan ang among ngalan from "Ruggeds" namili mi ug ngalan starting ni Magsaysay to Bonifacio, hangtud kang Rizal. pero walay napilian ni suggest si Ricky nga tungod kay diha man mi sa Bonifacio ga tambay dugangan nalang ug letter "N" bonifacian lugar pero joker man paminawon ingon si Ricky nga tungod kay diha man mi sa plaza ga estambay sumpayan na lang ug letter "N" ang word Plaza hence nahimong Plazan wala pai "s" sa nadugay tungod kay ang klase klaseng grupo diha man magkita nahimo na dayong "Plazans"....hence na Plazans na gyud.

Yes Toy , una inyong group if my memory would serve me right mga 1968 or 1970 tu . It was Ricky Jonayon that coined the name "Plazan"

                                                              ooooooooooooooooo

A number of us, including me, often wonder whatever happened to Rogie Lim, who was quite popular during our time as a pugilist.  I learned that he was the eldest son of Dulo Lim, who was for many years the manager of the local William Lines, located at the de Lara building in No. Divisoria.  His family lived on the upper floor of the same building.  Learned also that Rogie had lived quite an interesting life during his youth away from Cagayan de Oro.

Do we have any more stories about the Plazans we used to know?

                                                              oooooooooooooooo

Additional details from Bellboys member, Roque Gaerlan:

".. on the sides of the ruggeds i agree with francis that it ricky junayon who originated the name plazans. But on the side of the bellboys it bueno pimentel which bueno also establish the plazans official whistle. Every plazans is familiar with the tune up to the present time."

Yes, that unique and familiar call whistle very common with Plazans.  Have not heard that for a long time.

                                                                oooooooooooooooo

A TRUMP RALLY AFTER COVID19

      

                                   Link: https://youtu.be/E_wKLOq-30M

Now one can see why any exposure to the rally speeches of Trump, however fleeting, could risk some violent reaction, or even some dangers of exploding heads, emanating from those who loathe Trump.

HeHeHe.

He is such a quintessential showman, of no equal or comparable parallel in current history of US politics.  A very unorthodox campaigner, dispossessed of all the polite nuances of seasoned politicians of the past and maybe, the present. But then again Trump is so out of the mainstream, he has submerged himself so under the radar in what he does to promote himself and castigate his detractors.

His style definitely is one of a kind.  But is it all ideal, proper, and presidential?  The ensuring debate could result in very vigorous bones of contention that would see no end or resolution.  Just more irate detractors and acrimony against Trump.  Maybe even more noted converts from the fence to the side against Trump.  But Trump may believe that his committed base of support is among the countless and nameless multitude and forgotten masses of middle America, the thousands who attend his rallies and the millions who subscribe to his tweets.

So does Trump care much about all this?  The only thing certain is that he will continue his volleys of tweets and the theatrical tenor of his rally speeches.  Do they border on histrionics?   His detractors no doubt will readily nod in assent.  But I do believe that Trump is convinced that given the historic adversarial realities against him these are the ready options he can count on to try and level the playing field.

For this rally, I probably have gone through with about 20 minutes of playing time, but I promise to get to the whole thing, even if I have to scan view the whole piece.

Personally, I do not invest too much mind on the words of Trump.  Thus, in this regard I have rudimentary and shallow expectations from him. But his actions and their results I do monitory closely, and so far he has not disappointed me.  By most traditional standards he has exceeded the high expectations of many honest and unbiased observers. 

Thus, all things being equal, his actions ought to carry more weight in any decision-making the US electorate has to make in the coming election.  Thus, I feel the seeming absurdity of his detractors parsing his every statement looking for any “gotcha” angle.  They will and are uncovering many. But how much do they count, or do damage to a ship already full of holes, however unfairly inflicted, but still chugging along merrily?

Lastly, given the steely constitution and energetic passion that Trump has shown all this time, amidst “all the slings and arrows” thrown at him, I do believe he can weather through all this and mentally prepare himself for the ensuing bloody battle in his reelection bid.

The reelection could be as much a surprise as the first one.

A PERSONAL STORY: Racism In The US

The global pandemic has gotten the focused attention of the entire planet at this stage, and that grave concern is more than sufficient to drain the energies of many countries.  Some more than others.  Take the US, for example, prior to this the country had already been embroiled in serious political stripe from the start of the current administration.  The scourge has definitely added more burden.  Now, we have the protests, riots, violence and destruction inundating the breadth of the continent, partaking supposedly in the nature of racial stripe.  Though we believe it is a lot more, just the same we want to address the current unrest bedeviling the country.

I thought I’d contribute my little bit on the subject, having lived in the US for 30 years as an adult with our entire family.  Then resettled back in the old homeland while the kids are left there with their own families.

As an immigrant Filipino family we had relocated to No. California in the 80’s with 4 under-age children. We initially settled and then later the kids on their own settled in quite diverse communities in this place called the Bay Area.  The places they worked and the families they consequently established on their own tell us of this diversity of experiences and relationships.  My children married into African-American, Caucasian, Persian, and of course, Filipino families.  My wife herself is of mixed parentage, her maternal grandfather descended from immigrant Jewish family from Europe.  I feel then this accords me some bona fides when it comes to the issue of racism or its absence.

And my approach will not only be more experience-backed, but its anecdotal portions are supported by provable data and statistics.

First, we have to be clear what is objectionable about racism as compared to other similar attitudes about people.  Racism is first and foremost the attitude that your race or ethnicity is superior to the others that you discriminate against.  If you simply prefer one ethnicity over another that is not necessarily racism.  Thus, a prospective bridegroom is not racist simply because he prefers a tall lady rather than a short one, one with fairer hair rather than one with very dark hair, or even one with fairer skin over ones with darker skin, or even Filipina over a Chinese lady.  He has to bring into play the attitude of superiority to make him a racist.  But having discriminating tastes is not racism. So we have to treat with delicate and deliberate caution when we use the term racism.

On the other hand, it would not pass muster in accuracy to conflate slavery with racism, especially because of what we know today.  That slavery in Africa was started by Africans against their fellow Africans and taken over by white slave traders.  Or that in earlier times, slavery was done by others against their own.  Like Romans against their own, or Moro pirates in Mindanao against other native tribes in Mindanao.  In short, racism is not the only reason for slavery.

Now about the US.  If one studies the laws of the United States one cannot find one that outright spells racism, though there may be dead-letter remnants from the past that are left unnoticed in the dusty files of statutes.  I was still living there when somebody discovered some aged local law in one or two farming towns in central California that prohibited the marriage of white ladies with migrant Filipinos which stemmed clearly from the racism of an earlier time.   I believe that was summarily repealed. But those that are current and in use, we can truly say that racism is completely erased from the books.

But hate like love is difficult, if not outright impossible, to legislate.  Even the government or the people cannot get into the minds and hearts of other people and to forcibly remove racist streaks in them.  So, yes, there is still racism in the US, but not of the kinds and pervasiveness as in the past.  I would venture to say no different than the racism in other countries, whether very developed or not.  And I recall that we Filipinos also had our spells of racism, maybe.  And to this day, even in the US, many Filipinos are still very negatively critical of black America.  In the homeland, many Filipinos continue to think ill will against the dominant minority, calling them derogatory names. But we do not immediately jump into the bandwagon of condemning an entire group or country because of racism.\

I will admit that I and the family also were subjected to attitudes and language that could be construed as racist, but we knew they were more because of the ignorance or cluelessness of individuals, rather than an ingrained belief ascribable to an entire group. I recall one busy night at the hotel while on duty at the front desk when one white individual approached my station.  This non-guest wanted to encash a personal check, which I politely refused explaining to him that only registered guests could get funds from the front desk.  But he would have none of it and continued loudly to insist.  Not getting his way, he rushed close to my station and planted his angry heated face close to mine and said:  That is the problem with you Vietnamese, you are so stupid and thus, we lost the war.  And I could only move back and smile a bit, until security came to remove the guy.

In the big hotel I worked for 20 years, it had over 1000 employees from very diverse origins.  If one met a black person one had to be extra careful because one was not sure if he was African-American, Ethiopian, Liberian, Somali, or one from the deep South whose language sounded foreign, etc.  But generally things went along pretty well.

 

I was among the first Filipino immigrants to be assigned to the front desk and my fellow Filipinos made sure I marked that well.   But I did not pay much attention to it in that way.  I thought of it simply as a business decision.  Like, as I noticed in the hotel’s Sales Department which was peopled mostly by white sales managers, and one Japanese sales manager.  At first blush that sounded discriminatory at the very least.  But then one learns, if the main business of the hotel was with white corporate America and white individuals from the upper classes, then one understands.  What about the Japanese sales manager?  Well, because many tourist groups who patronized the hotel came from Japan.  Wise business decisions, indeed.  Not racism.

And the reason why I included the word immigrant in my description of myself is quite easy to explain.  Most of us first generation immigrants regardless of how educated and good at the English language we were, we continued to carry our distinctive accents, making us sound different from everybody else including FilAms who were natives to the place or grew up in the place.  The tacit reasoning has its roots in an observation I realized and was confirmed by others that people there felt more comfortable and more at ease speaking and listening to those who spoke like them.  Media personalities were good examples.  You found them in many ethnicities, but all spoke like the natives, so that one could not tell what ethnicity they had if one did not look directly at them. Applying to our local situation, we bisayans do feel more at ease listening to a tagalog speak bisayan, though we know we would be able to understand him in his native dialect because we also understand Tagalog.  And this is so, because it is just human nature.  In any free and unplanned social gathering, people who speak similarly will group together and most likely speak of their common interests.  That is human nature, too.

When talks about racism in the US erupt, usually occasioned by flashpoints, like a white person killing a black person, they are typically centered around the black segment of the population against the majority white population.

First a breakdown of the current US population.

Loosely, this is how the current US population is distributed

Non-Hispanic whites                  -    62.2%

Hispanics                                   -     15.3%

Black Americans                      -      13.2%

Asians                                      -        5.4%

Other statistics would claim that Hispanics now number about 20% of the populations while blacks are as low as 10%.  But an interesting stat is that of foreign-born residents/citizens which now account for over 14% of the total and in a rather surprisingly lopsided manner, close to 30% of the population of California, the most populous state, are foreign-born.  Regardless, it is no mere idle speculation to state that the America of pre-Civil War era or even in the 60’s has changed very dramatically, most noticeably in ethnic composition.  Thus, we could say that to claim systemic or structural racism in that context is almost logic-defying.

Still, there is no denying that charges of racism are still an almost regularly recurring reality in the US, and when flashpoints are ignited then it exhibits the paroxysms of riots, destruction and violence, yes, killings, amidst peaceful protests and marches.  The charges inevitably stem from the belief that blacks are unevenly and unfairly targeted, bullied, and punished by the US justice system.  The general outrage is bracketed by the claim that while blacks are a small minority in the population, yet they are over-represented in the justice system – thus for them, more killings, more prisoners, more brutality cases, more arrests, etc.

But do the realities bear these out?  This is always the crux of the matter that though easy to resolve is never done.  Because for some reason or other, stats seem to surprisingly not matter in this rather thorny issue, and where it is most needed and apt for any meaningful resolution.

No denying that the black minority is or appears to be over-represented in the justice system when compared to their total number in the population.  But plausible reasons can be advanced why these situations are so.  And there is ample data to explain and rationalize this.  And facts do not point to anything suggesting that systemic racism is causing them.   Thus, comparatively blacks engaged in more numbers in criminality, especially in communities where they dominate in numbers like Chicago, Oakland, etc.  In the realm of detrimental social issues, as much as 70% of black families are fatherless, and children born out of wedlock are pretty high.  And criminal acts by blacks against blacks are so high, they cannot compare with say, criminal acts of whites against blacks, or even blacks against whites.  Even in abortion cases, the black community rates extremely high. In 2019 alone, there were only 10 instances of deaths involving police officers against blacks.  And I do believe a couple of them were done by black police officers.  So the grave difficulty in promoting the claim that there is systemic racism in the country.

But the stubborn myths continue to propagate otherwise, stoked by politicians and interest groups who are constantly harping on the race card to promote their identity politics.  For example, learning a little of Black Lives Matter will reveal its agenda on race relations.  Information is never wanting for those interested to learn.  The diligence and the interest are what are more needed.