For PhilPost 1st National Letter Writing Day: Showing Off My Stamp Collection

I was at SM – Bacoor last weekend where I was amazed by an exhibit located at the lower ground floor. It featured the history of the postal service in the Philippines and, of course, letter writing. The best part of the exhibit is PhilPost’s collection of stamps.

PhilPost's stamp collection on display.

I also learned a lot about the history of postal services in the country. The Philippine Postal Corporation (PhilPost or PhlPost) points to the year 1767, when the Spanish Colonial Government established the post office in Manila, as its foundation date.

Milestones of postal service in the Philippines.

What I saw in SM – Bacoor is the Sulat Mulat Campaign exhibit of the PhilPost. It is a part of the 1st National Letter Writing Day on October 09.

PhilPost’s 1st National Letter Writing Day was done to promote letter writing and postal services in the Philippines. This is a good move for PhilPost since letter writing is now ignored by most people, especially the younger generations.

During my grade school days, letter writing is one of the things that we should learn. We are taught about the parts of the letter. Our teacher also taught us how to start and end a letter. We were even tasked to send our letter by mail!

I’m not sure if letter writing is still being taught in schools.

What I enjoyed is the display about the parts of a stamp. I didn’t know that this small piece of paper have parts.

Many stamps produced by PhilPost were on display. Many of them feature plants and animals. Of course, heroes and notable people in Philippine history were also featured in the PhilPost exhibit. My favorite, however, are the stamps featuring the canonization of Saint Pedro Calungsod and the beatification of Pope John Paul II.

I am not a philatelist nor an avid stamp collector but I had some stamps that I collected over the years. Here are some of them:

Butterflies (2006), special stamp for APO Philatelic Society (1950) and KKK.

PhilPost stamps featuring butterflies and flowers are the most common in my collection. Such stamps are my least favorite because I don't like the design.

I also have stamps featuring some notable persons in Philippine history. I think that these kinds of PhilPost stamps are also common.

Left to right from top to bottom, PhilPost stamps featuring the first stamp issued in the Philippines, Sultan Kudarat, Pio Valenzuela, Rafael Palma, Wenceslao Vinzons, Gregorio del Pilar, Jose Rizal and Ninoy Aquino.

My favorite kinds of stamps are those featuring churches in the Philippines. Too bad that I only have three such stamps.

Clockwise from upper left, Morong Church, San Agustin Church and Basilica of Taal.

All three stamps were issued in 1975. Of the three churches, I only managed to visit San Agustin Church, which is located in Intramuros. I hope to visit the other two churches in the near future.

Aside from stamps issued by PhilPost, I also have stamps that originated from other countries. Here some of them:

Stamps from Japan, India, Indonesia, USA, Korea, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

I also have stamps from New Zealand and Canada but I didn't included it here.

Aside from the common stamps and old envelopes, another gem in my collection is an envelope of a telegram. I was amazed when I found it because it is rare to see telegram envelopes these days.

Before the advent of telephone, the telegram served as the fastest mean of sending messages to faraway places. I heard from my parents that it is expensive to send a telegram so people try to be as brief as possible. Telegram was usually used for urgent messages.

Stamps are small pieces of paper but it is packed with history. That's why I collect stamps and also the envelopes where they are attached.

It is good that PhilPost is active in promoting letter writing. Such art is somewhat lost to the youth of today. They prefer fast paced communication that they usually forget to think before they send their messages. I believe that letter writing promotes thinking because it requires well constructed sentences.

Letter writing and postal service will not return to their former glory. What I hope that PhilPost's National Letter Writing Day will achieve, at least, is the promotion message composition that was well thought of and patiently composed.

So, to my kababayans, happy National Letter Writing Day!

For more information about the 1st National Letter Writing Day, please visit Sulat Mulat Facebook page and the PhilPost website.

Manila Central Post Office

Standing on the southern bank of the Pasig River is a building popular as location for the local movies. I actually saw this building in “Praybeyt Benjamin” of Vice Ganda and another movie, which starred Bea Alonzo. Its columns is very impressive to look at that's why directors and producers like this building.

I am, of course, talking about the Manila Central Post Office.

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The Manila Central Post Office is my most favorite building in Manila. The neoclassical artchitectural style of this building reminds me of old Greece.

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The Philippine flag is on half-mast during Sec. Robredo's wake.

The post office building was located between Jones and MacArthur bridges. Locate in front of it is the Liwasang Bonifacio, which contains a unique statue of Andres Bonifacio.

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This statue is unique because Andres Bonifacio is not holding any bolo. He is standing as if he is posing for a photo with the Manila Central Post Office as the background.

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What I like with classical buildings is the presence of tiny details. An example would be the “gargoyle heads” located on the buildings facade. You can see those heads on the photo above. The heads are brown-colored “dots” located above the columns.

Buildings designed before the Second World War are beautiful because the architects are concerned about the minor details. The gargoyle heads on the facade of the Manila Central Post Office are small and unnecessary. These will look invisible to many people going in and out of the post office building. Despite of that, the architect still included it in his design.

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The Manila Central Post Office was erected in the year 1926. The original building was designed by Juan Arellano. Unfortunately, this building was destroyed during the “Liberation of Manila” at the end of the Second World War. Ironically, it is the Americans (the so-called liberators) who did the most damage in Manila at the end of the War. Their bombs destroyed most of the pre-War buildings including the post office building.

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(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

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(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

These photos were taken after the Liberation of Manila (1945) by Private Glenn Eve of the US Military. You can visit this site to see other post-World War 2 photos of the Manila Central Post Office.

The Philippine Government rebuilt the post office building. The original design of the building was followed but some people say that the current post office building is a far cry from the design of Juan Arellano.

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The Postman is located right in front of the Manila Central Post Office building. This statue was erected in 1975 in honor of the employees of the Philippine Postal Service. The Postman serves as a symbol of service excellence that touched the lives of people across the country and around the whole world.

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The central post office building now serves as the main office of Philippine Postal Corporation (PhilPost). This is where posts around the world are sorted before being sent to their respective destinations within the country. I am glad that our postal service is still alive in spite of being labeled as “snail mail”. The Manila Central Post Office building will continue to be maintained while PhilPost is alive.

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P.S. Do you want to see what's inside the Manila Central Post Office? This music video features the post office building:

Beautiful video and music. :-) Thank you for pointing me to this video TinTin Sison.

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Do you experienced sending mail at the Manila Central Post Office? Or did you already visited their impressive neo-classical building? Tell us about your experience by leaving a comment on the combox below.