MANILA, Philippines ? The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the Philippine central bank, is backing the proposal to have the P500 bill also bear a portrait of the late Corazon ?Cory? Aquino.

The current P500 bill carries the portrait of the late Sen. Benigno ?Ninoy? Aquino Jr., the husband of the former President, whose passing on Aug. 1 continues to be mourned nationwide.

The suggestion to include Cory Aquino?s portrait on the P500 bill was made to BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. by former Energy Secretary Vince Perez, according to an earlier report.

On Thursday, Tetangco told reporters that he had ?asked the numismatic committee to consider the proposal to put up the portrait of former President Aquino on the P500 bill in designing our new-generation currency notes.?

The numismatic committee is composed of central bank officials led by BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo, National Historical Institute (NHI) Chair Ambeth Ocampo and former BSP Governor Jaime Laya.

Tetangco said the planned move to include the former President?s portrait on the P500 bill would be part of the BSP?s efforts to redesign most, if not all, the peso bills.

The BSP had earlier announced that peso notes would soon have a different look.

Work to this end has started, and the release of the redesigned bills will be done one at a time starting next year.

According to BSP Deputy Governor Amando Suratos, the central bank thought it was time to issue new designs for the peso notes as many of these were too old.

?We are also improving the security features of the notes because we have to be a step ahead of counterfeiters,? Suratos was earlier quoted as saying.

National hero

The call to declare Cory Aquino a national hero has gained wide ground, with Sen. Rodolfo Biazon saying he would file next week a joint resolution of Congress making the declaration.

?We have seen how the people responded to her. She is qualified to be a national hero,? Biazon said Thursday on the phone.

He was referring to the hundreds of thousands of people who escorted Aquino?s casket from Manila Cathedral to Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque City in a nine-hour procession on Wednesday.

Earlier, two lawmakers in the House had filed separate resolutions declaring Aquino, the icon of the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution, a national hero.

Camarines Norte Rep. Liwayway Vinzons-Chato filed House Resolution No. 42 urging the NHI to designate, build and declare historical structures, edifices and monuments commemorating Aquino?s heroism.

House Joint Resolution No. 41, which was filed by Agusan del Sur Rep. Rodolfo Plaza, seeks to make Aquino ?a hero of the Republic of the Philippines.?

Both resolutions were referred to the rules committee and are expected to be discussed in the House plenary next week.

High time

Sen. Pia Cayetano said she would back the move to declare Aquino a national hero because it was ?well deserved.?

She said heroes tended to be viewed as ?people from the past,? and that ?it would be wonderful to have a present modern-day hero? in the former President.

?I think it is high time we recognized her, and I can?t think of any other person [appropriate for] that honor and title,? Cayetano told reporters at the weekly Kapihan sa Senado forum.

She said Aquino could be the first to be proclaimed a national hero through legislation.

According to Cayetano, there is no legislation officially proclaiming any Filipino historical figure as a national hero.

At the very least, she said, laws were enacted and proclamations issued honoring Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio.

Rizal was ?not explicitly proclaimed as a national hero,? Cayetano said in a statement issued by her office.

?The only other hero given implied recognition as a national hero is Andres Bonifacio, whose day of birth on Nov. 30 has been made a national holiday,? she said.

She added that only three of the 15 national holidays were ?named after a singular historical figure: Rizal Day, Bonifacio Day and Ninoy Aquino Day.?

Smooth sailing, but...

HR 41 and HR 42 are likely to be passed smoothly in the House, according to Majority Leader Arthur Defensor.

?I believe there will be spontaneous support to declare President Aquino a national hero,? Defensor, who held a number of posts under the Aquino administration, said in a phone interview.

Quezon Rep. Lorenzo ?Erin? Tañada III said he would not mind supporting the two resolutions, but added that he expected a debate over them.

However, Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez said it was the NHI which should declare a person a national hero.

?For me, politicians should not be involved in the issue of who should be made a national hero. The last thing we want to happen is politicians in Congress debating because of political alignments,? Golez said at the Serye forum in Quezon City.

In hearts, minds of people

Quezon City Rep. Matias Defensor also expressed the belief that Congress should not be involved in the matter.

?I think being a national hero does not require a congressional imprimatur. Being a hero is in the hearts and minds of the people... Congress can go wrong. The work of the present Congress can be criticized in later years, but in all generations, a hero will remain a hero,? Matias Defensor said at the same forum.

?We are too limited in terms of time and space to declare one a hero for generations to come,? he said, adding that he did believe Aquino to be a hero ?in a sense.?

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo said that if Aquino would be declared a national hero, the proper process should be followed.

He said this was what the former President would want because she was ?a stickler for rules.?

Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga, a lawyer, said historians had taken the position that the legislature should not be involved in the declaration of national heroes.

But he said he personally supported the measures for Aquino, and that she satisfied the requirements to be declared a national hero.

Saint of People Power

As for the idea of petitioning the Vatican to declare Aquino a saint to serve as a model for politicians, Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles said he was all for it.

He said he believed that the former President deserved to be named a saint for leading an exemplary political life while relying on her Christian faith and values.

?If I were the Pope, I would have her declared a recognized saint... We can say she is a saint for her political life. She is a saint of People Power, as others say,? Arguelles said in an interview over the Church-run Radio Veritas.

He added: ?When [Aquino] was thrust into the [political] limelight, she said ?God has written my life?. She did not plan any of it. She was put into that position because of her surrender to God. That?s why people like her are God?s gift to humanity.?

?In God?s own time?

Arguelles said the matter of Aquino?s sainthood should not be forced and that it would happen ?In God?s own time, if God wants her to be a symbol for many people.?

The Philippines, the only predominantly Christian nation in Southeast Asia, has its sole saint in Lorenzo Ruiz, who did not renounce his faith under torture in 17th-century Japan.

Pope John Paul II canonized Ruiz as the first Filipino saint on Oct. 18, 1987, in Vatican City. With a report from Dona Z. Pazzibugan