I Was Fooled by a P20 Bill

Weeks ago I had a 20 peso bill that had a doodle beside Quezon. It's the kind of doodle you would see on my notebook whenever we have our Bio class or any other boring class for that matter. The three arrows intrigued me because it was pointing at Quezon's head. Was it pointing out that Quezon was going bald? The guy who previously owned this bill must have had nothing else to do. Anyway I used it to pay for my jeep fare that day. This morning however, on my way to school, I dug into my wallet and pulled out a 20 peso bill to pay for my bus fare. To my surprise it was the same bill that I had weeks ago, or so I thought. Coincidences have their effect on me so I decided to keep the bill and pay with another. This 20 peso bill was the change that I got from our school's cafeteria yesterday. I wondered how it got all the way from Cavite to Manila? In my mind I pictured the 20 peso bill being passed from person to person. The jeepney driver could have gave it as a change to a passenger, the passenger could have used it to buy a newspaper, the newspaper guy, during a hot summer day, could have used it to buy a bottle of mineral water, the guy selling the mineral water, along with fish crackers, and quail eggs, could have passed it off as a change to a UP student commuting to school, the student could then have bought something from the cafeteria, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Nothing can be more significant than something that makes its way back to you. I pondered on these things only to find out later that there's really nothing significant about this 20 peso bill that I had. That in fact, it is just one of the hundreds, even thousands like it circulating around the Philippines. How did I know? I saw something I missed out earlier. Written below the doodle was "UN Year of Microcredit 2005: Sustainable Microfinance Services for the Filipino Enterpeneurial Poor". I did my research and it turned out that the doodle was actually the logo of the International Year of Microcredit 2005:

"The logo depicts power, movement, and speed, each emanating from a strong core -- all descriptive elements of microcredit and where it stands in today's world." [yearofmicrocredit.org]

So that was what the three arrows were all about, but what the heck was it doing in a 20 peso bill. Maybe the Philippine government was advertising microfinance. Actually microfinance and microcredit mean the same thing and that is the extension of small loans to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for bank loans. They say it would help poor people engage in projects that would generate income. This is fine, but what if they didn't make a profit out of the loan that they used? They'll be stuck in debt like the Philippines is today.

Haay, and to think that for a moment I thought there was something special about this peso bill. This is what I get for watching too much of Serendipity.

This entry was posted on March 02, 2005 at 9:13 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.