Criticism follows plan to remove World War II heroes from P1,000 bill

It's only been a few days since the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) announced that they would be changing the design of the country's P1,000 bill but criticism has already begun to come in from different parties.

Descendants of the three World War II heroes featured on the bill - Jose Abad Santos, Josefa Llanes Escoda, and Vicente Lim - decried the move, saying it was like killing the three heroes once again.

In an interview, Josefa Llanes Escoda's nephew, Jose Maria Bonifacio Escoda, said that this was more painful than the Japanese killing his aunt as this is being done by fellow Filipinos.

He also questioned whether this was a move orchestrated by Japan in order to erase the atrocities it had committed here in the country.

Desiree Ann Cua-Benipayo, a great-grandniece of Jose Abad Santos, posted on Facebook to air her concerns about the proposed change, asking why it was necessary to remove the three heroes from the bill when the Philippine Eagle could have been put on the back of the bill instead.

Succeeding posts have her sharing a link to a Change.org petition asking the BSP to stop the change from happening.

Kronika Militar, a podcast on Philippine military history, also denounced the move, calling it an attempt by the BSP to “erase history and denigrate genuine Filipino heroes and martyrs.” In its Facebook post, the podcast shared the acts of heroism the three martyrs performed during World War II.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas had earlier announced that the redesign will apply to the limited polymer bills to be released by April 2022. The reason for the removal of the three heroes, according to BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno, was because the new series intends to “focus on flora and fauna in the Philippines.”