How to spot a fake

Last Thursday we were invited to visit the Central Bank of the Philippines in the heart of Manila.
Ooh, a field trip! I was very excited and felt grade school again.
Carpooled with Pia Magalona and Harold Geronimo all the way to Manila because carpooling rocks! It’s fun, you save gas, and lessen traffic.

The good news is, the BSP building, built in the 1960s-1970s (by Pia’s grandfather, in fact) is well preserved with the marble floors and a retro feel. You could almost expect to bump into Eddie Rodriguez or Vic Silayan in its freezing hallways, or maybe my grandfather.
Pia and I made a quick stop at the José Rizal wall to take pictures. I had a serious crush on Jose Rizal during high school. I swooned while reading Noli and Fili. So yes, mahal ko si Cristostomo Ibarra!
Until I found out he was less than five feet tall in real life, so I got over it.

Because of our long journey, Pia and I had to make a quick stop at the restroom, which was renovated, and well, TONS better than NAIA. Why can’t NAIA restrooms be like this??

We were led into a conference room for a briefing about fakes

The fakes are very scary real-looking

Bam Aquino was there

The nice part was when we were allowed to change our money into the new bills (kulang ng 50 pesos)

Tessa is happy (and yay, my arm is smaller than hers, hehe)

After the briefing we went to see the Governor in his office, which had all these iconic Amorsolo paintings.
(Ugh, I miss my lola!! Amorsolo used to eat in her house and he would give her paintings!!)

Amorsolo really warms my heart.

Bold!

We got to meet Governor Amando M. Tetangco, Jr. (and I wonder if he could take over NAIA to fix the damn place).
He gave us a gift of all the new bills plus a 10-peso coin in a special folder.

We got autographs

On our way out we saw this massive antique table where the Malolos Constitution was supposedly signed.
Awesome!! I want to see some mumus.

Paid our respects to Rizal once again.

Then said goodbye to the wonderful Fe dela Cruz, Director of Corporate Affairs.

Tomorrow, Pia Magalona, Tessa Valdes, Bam Aquino, Elmo Magalona and I will be at the media launch of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ Anti-Counterfeit Campaign.
HP Philippines and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas invite you to view a showcase of original currencies and HP inks and toners at the Activity Center of Trinoma Mall on July 20 and 21, 2011.

The two-day affair will feature panoramic galleries showing national currency memorabilia through the years, and interactive demonstrations on how to determine the authenticity of the newly issued Philippine peso bills.
Guests can also enjoy the special opportunity of exchanging their old bills for the new banknotes in all denominations during both days.
Each person is allowed to exchange one (1) set of the new peso bills (P20, P50, P100, P200, P500, P1000).

Aside from getting their hands on the new banknote series, visitors can also exchange their old non-HP printers to receive discount certificates on new HP printers. HP will raffle off new HP printers and premium items to those who visit the exhibit.

There will be photo souvenirs given away and special performance from surprise celebrity guests.
See you tomorrow at Trinoma as soon as the mall opens!

Originally published at Chuvaness.com. You can comment here or there.