The peculiar check dated May 1, 1967
Earlier this afternoon, a long-awaited package arrived at my doorstep; not as a product of idolizing nor glorifying, but out of mere fascination of the people behind it. It was a Philippine Trust Company check dated May 1, 1967 (SN. 1065338) that I fought hard to win in an auction. This was no ordinary check, even if its 59-year preservation and mint condition was already peculiar–it was a check personally from Trinidad Fernandez Legarda (1899–1998). Legarda is beyond what her dedicated Wikipedia article tells, even if her title as the “First Lady Ambassador of the Philippines” is already impressive enough. Legarda was a generalist: from a beauty queen, to a delegate who met the Prince of Wales, to a women’s rights suffragist, and even a president to the Manila Symphony Society, the predecessor of the Manila Symphony Orchestra (MSO).
The same hands that held the beauty queen crown, the pens that defended 20th century women in the country, and the musical pieces of a renowned orchestra signed this check that was no more than 10 inches in length, and had small holes through a staple mark. However, she addressed it to persons equally as intriguing: Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. and Imelda Marcos. The check paid to the order of exactly 100 Pesos, which, when accounting for a 10,000%+ Philippine Peso depreciation rate since 1967, is almost worth around 10,000 to 14,000 Pesos when converted. The white-turned-yellow check smells like an old book, and it is very straightforward about the information stated. However, I purchased it without knowing any context; even the auction house did not know what it was for, they were just able to vouch for its authenticity.
What was Marcos, Sr. and Legarda’s relationship by that time? We can trace that in 1966 and 1967 (the same year the check was created), the former awarded the latter with the Presidential Merit Award as a civic leader who, through decades, consistently used leadership and pro-women platforms to promote the rights and destigmatization of that society’s yesterday. It will remain a mystery as to why they had this interaction to begin with: was this merely a donation to Marcos Sr.’s personal funds? Was it for a foundation, or perhaps something she owed or promised to the former president? What did Marcos Sr. spend the money on? If it was addressed to administrative, governmental funds, maybe this actually amounts for the fraction of ill-gotten financial resources that the former president accumulated. There is a certain type of neural itch that bothers me to look through every detail, but at the end of the day, the check is just full of verification stamps that it has been paid and received by the Clearing Office of the Central Bank of the Philippines by June 20, a month after the financial interaction was initiated.
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At the back, a stamp reads the following:
FIRST CLEARING
Cleared through the Clearing Office
Central Bank of the PhilippinesJUN 20 1967
All Prior Endorsements and/or lack of Endorsements Guaranteed
MERCHANTS BANKING CORPORATION
Manila
There is no definitive evidence to say that this ended up in Marcos, Sr.’s desk, or even in his hands. But there is also no denying that such circumstances are impossible. Breaking away from that, maybe it doesn’t matter if the whole point is connecting the dots to why this, out of probably tens of thousands of other checks, stands out. It is because it encapsulates its own mystery and story incomparable to all the theories that can be logically constructed. It can tell about a political tie or a relationship that did not involve politics; maybe just diplomacy in play.
The snapshot created by something so vague means that there are endless thoughts that can be generated about it that tells not only about a prominent, women-defending, and history-making Filipina and Marcos Sr.’s activity in his first term, some 5 years before Martial Law was declared, but about how the Filipino elite interacted with the government at a time where the economy, international relations, and the administration was dramatically shifting. That is the power a document holds, no matter how simple, worn out, or old it may be; I reflect on both a last-minute auction victory and also secrets that this 59-year-old check will never tell me no matter how many articles I review and how many books I will read.
