Republic of the Philippines

Northwest Samar State University

Rueda St., Calbayog City 6710
Website: http//www.nwssu.edu.ph
Email: main@nwssu.edu.ph
Telefax: (055) 2093657
ISO 9001:2015 Certified

Module 1: Group Work Output

in
RESEARCH IN SOCIAL STUDIES
(SS15)

Submitted To:

MR. TEODY LESTER V. PANELA

Course Instructor

Submitted By:

BELANO, LENARD A.
TURLA, BOBBY E.
BARO, ANGELA MERCY C.
JUMADAY REA JELYN
PERITO, MARIEL B.
BACOLPO, AMY P.
BSED-III Social Studies

A. Topic 1:

Freedom of Speech to the behavior of Filipino Youths in Social Media.

B. ACCOMPANYING LITERATURE

Article 10 of the Human Rights Act: Freedom of Expression states that “Everyone has

the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and

to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and

regardless of frontiers.”

While Filipino youths are becoming more knowledgeable of their rights, they are

taking full pleasure in exercising this. On today’s generation of Filipino youths, social

media has become the number one avenue to exercise freedom of speech. Scroll through

social media in the Philippines, and you’ll get the feel of how young people have

transformed digital spaces into a microcosm of what the Philippines should or should not

be (Garcia, 2016). Age group 18-24 makes up the largest proportion of social media

users, 52.7%... 13-17 years old (13.8%) (Dan, 2019).

However, social media has corresponding positive and negative effects on Filipino

behavior (Pascual, 2019). He added, for one on the positive side, it makes communication

with friends and relatives easier. It also made initiating events and activities hassle-free.

The negative effects, on the other hand, are as follows: (1) It has made it easier to spread

bad and potentially damaging information; (2) It has become a new medium for violence

and crime like scams and identity. Garcia (2019) added, “it also made people ‘argue

about each other’s perspective related to political views, religion, social rights, and

culture.’ It made people ‘more conservative about each other’s point of view.” (Kennedy,

2019) cited, Social media use can have a serious negative impact on areas of well-being

including feelings of depression, anxiety, fear of missing out, body image, bullying and

sleep. He added, Conversely, use of social media can promote positive feelings of well-

being including creating a sense of community, providing access to needed health

information, helping create new relationships and maintain existing ones and offering a

platform for self-expression and creation of self-identity.

And while everyone is given the right to freely express their thoughts, (Swigger, 2012)

has investigated the use of social media and views on civil liberties and privacy. He finds
 that for those under the age of 25 support for freedom of expression rises, and support for

privacy falls, as social media involvement increases. Those who grew up in an age of

social media and actively engaged in those online activities are much more supportive of

free expression and much less supportive of privacy rights. He also stressed that,

Technology has advanced to being so heavily integrated into our lives that there is every

reason to believe that it will influence our behavior…

Gabriel Pabico Lalu on his report “Filipino netizens’ gags give Harvard’s Facebook

stats a boost” said “The Facebook page of Harvard University has gained more traction

compared to previous weeks, due to a weird phenomenon going on in social media… it’s

a result of young Filipino netizens spamming the Ivy League university’s page.” On his

report, he added one comment of a netizen, and said “It’s somewhat alarming because the

jokes may be uncomfortable for some of the people in the pictures. No problem if it’s

harmless. But nowadays people tend to be insensitive just so they could sound witty or

funny in social media,

With the majority of teens using several types of social media during adolescence, a

critical brain developmental stage, and having easy access to mobile technology, it is

important to understand the different outcomes social media can have on adolescent

wellbeing in order to identify needed interventions that pertain to individual social media

platforms, especially the platforms teens cite using the most (Arain et al., 2013).

C. REASONS FOR SELECTING THE TOPIC

A. STATISTICAL FINDINGS

Social media has become part of every people’s life in today’s generation.

According to Rameez 2015, any website that allows social interaction is considered

social media including social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and

Twitter. People nowadays become more into getting online to see ample of things that

would entertain them. This is evident in the statement of DiRenzo 2016; people use

social media for many things such as socializing, finding and sharing information,
 shopping and simply as a diversion. Thus, this platform is globally growing with

overwhelming users in every part of the world.

In the study of Digital 2020: July Global Statshot, social media users have grown

by more than 10% over the past year taking the global total to 3.96 billion by the

start of July 2020. This means that for the first time more than half of the world’s

population now uses social media, with more people using than not (Kemp, 2020).

Market leader Facebook was the first social network to surpass 1 billion registered

accounts and currently boasts approximately 2.5 million users, making it the most

popular social network worldwide (Clement, 2020).

Figure 1. Graph of the world’s most used social platforms.

JUL THE WORLD’S MOST-USED SOCIAL PLATFORMS

2020 BASED ON MONTHLY ACTIVE USERS, ACTIVE ACCOUNTS, OR ADDRESSABLE ADVERTISING AUDIENCES (IN MILLIONS)

FACEBOOK 2, 603

YOUTUBE 2,000

WHATSAPP 2,000

FB MESSENGER 1,300

WEIXIN/WECHAT 1,200

INSTAGRAM 1,082

TIKTOK 800

QQ 694

SINIA WEIBO 550

QZONE 517

REDDIT 430
 DOUYIN 400

KUAISHOU 400

SNAPCHAT 397

PINTEREST 367

TWITTER 326

This compilation shows the importance of messenger applications like WhatsApp,

Facebook Messenger and WeChat. It also highlights the rapid growth of Tiktok to

become one of the main social networks. Note that Reddit, which is not discussed as

much as Twitter has more monthly active users than Twitter and Pinterest. It has

expanded in advertising programs recently and can be useful for reaching audiences

discussing activities such as gaming (Chaffey, 2020).

In the Philippines, with a population of 107.3 million in 2019, of that population

76 million or 71% are active social media users (Dan, 2019). Below is the age

distribution of social media users in the Philippines as of 2019.

Figure 2. Age Distribution of social media users in the Philippines

------------------------ -------------------------------------------

60%

------------------------ -------------------------------------------

48%

------------------------ -------------------------------------------

36% 52.7%
 ------------------------ -------------------------------------------

24%

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -31%
-------------------------------------------

13.8%
12%

Age
As can be seen in the graph, age group 18-24 makes up the
13-17% largest portion of social media users, 52.7%. The runners-up are
25-34 years old with 31%. Completing spot three and four are 13-
18-24 17 years old (13.8%) and 35-44 years old (2.2%) respectively
(Dan, 2019).
25-34
35-44

45-54
55-64
65+

Whilst U.S. users spent approximately one hour and fifty-seven minutes using social media

each day, the Philippines ranked first in terms of user engagement with average time amounted

to four hours and one minute (Clement, 2020). This makes the Philippines known as the social

media capital of the world. The popularity of social media in the Philippines made a change in

the typical Filipino life. This drive the force of people getting hooked to buying mobile phones

and connecting the net and engage in the online world. As the dependence of social media

become increasing, publicity is seen as widely practiced by a simple click to post.

In the study published by Lad 2017, he indicated the positive impact of social media to

teenagers. And these are; social media help develop awareness about society and the world, help

develop social skills, inspire teenagers and help in fine tune motor skill.

In another study of Anderson & Jiang 2018, they found out that teen themselves describe

social media as a key tool for connecting and maintaining relationships, being creative, and

learning more about the world. The research entitled Teens and their experiences on social media

cited that when U.S. teens were asked what topics they post in their social media, half of them

say they post about their accomplishments while 44% say they post about their family (See
Figure 4). Around one third on these sites (34%) say they share things related to their emotions

and feelings on these sites, while 22% posts about their dating life. Thus, few teens around 1 in

10 say they share things related to their personal problems or their religious and political beliefs

on social media (Anderson & Jiang, 2018).

Figure 4. While about half of teens post their accomplishments on social media, few discuss

their religious or political beliefs.

% of U.S. teens who say they ever post about their ___ on social media

49%
Accomplishments

44%
Family

Emotion and
34%

feelings
22%
Dating life

13%
Personal Problems

11%
Religious beliefs

9%
Political beliefs

28%
None of these

Note: Respondents were allowed to select multiple options. Respondents who did not give answer are not

shown.

Source: Survey conducted March 7-April 10, 2018. “Teens’ Social Media Habits and Experiences”

Consequently, in these platforms anyone can publish content and anyone interested in the

content can obtain it, representing a transformative revolution in our society (Mondal et al.,

2017). Since there is freedom of expressing each people’s thoughts, anyone can have a grasp on
the content a person shares online. This challenge manifests itself with a number of variations

including bullying, offensive content and hate speech (Mondal, et al., 2017).

In the study conducted by Oksanen et. al., 2014, they have investigated the extent of

online hate material among young social media users and analyzed the data collected from a

sample of Finnish Facebook users between ages 15 and 18. The analytic strategies were based

descriptive statistics and logistic regression models. The findings found a majority 67% of

respondents had been exposed to hate material online, With 21% having also fallen victim to

such material (Oksanen et al., 2014) in which the online hate material primarily focused on

sexual orientation, physical appearance, and ethnicity. This is evident that teenagers mostly

engage themselves in the speech hate online and also experience the problem from the other

colleagues.

Additionally, Anderson & Jiang 2018 cited that although sizeable shares of teens

encounter positive experiences on social media, some report encounter negative experiences on

social media, some report encountering drama on social media or feeling pressure to present

themselves in a certain way. Some 45% of teens say that they feel overwhelmed by all the drama

on social media, while roughly four in ten say they feel pressure to only post content that makes

them look good to others or that they will get lots of comments or likes, others believe social

media has had negative impact on their self-esteem; 26% of teens say these sites make them feel

worse about their own life and still just 4% of teens indicate these platforms make them feel “a

lot” worse about life (Anderson & Jiang, 2018).

Figure 5. Most teens say social media better connects them to their friends’ lives and feelings,

but some also feel overwhelmed by the drama on these sites.

% of U.S. teens who say social media makes them feel…

POSITIVE FEELINGS Yes, a lot Yes, a little NET

More connected to what’s 37 44 88

going on their friends’ lives

 28 44
Like they can show their 71

creative side

More I touch with their 24 45 69

friend’s feelings

Like they have people who can 25 43 68

support them through tough

times

NEGATIVE FEELINGS Yes, a lot Yes, a little NET

Overwhelmed because of all 45

13 33
of the drama

15 28
Pressure to only post content 43

that makes them look good to

others

Pressure to post content that 12 25 37

45
will get lots of likes/comments

4 22
Worse about their own life 26

Note: Respondents who did not give an answer or gave other responses are not shown.

B. RESEARCH GAP

There have been a number of studies of: Freedom of Expression on Social Media

(Astuli, 2016; Graciyal and Viswam, 2018), Effect on Social Media to The Youth
 (Padmalosani, 2019; Juszezyk, 2015), Effects of Social Media to The Behavior of

Youth and their Studies (Njoroge, 2013; Umar and Idris, 2018). However, none of

these studies focus thoroughly on effects of freedom of speech to the behavior of

youths on social media, particularly in the Philippines.

REFERENCES:

Anderson, M. & Jiang, J. (2018). Teens Social Media Habits and Experiences. 1615 L. St. NW,
Suite 800 Washington, DC 20036 USA: Pew Research Center. Retrieved from:
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/11/28/teens-and-their-experiences-on-social-
media/pi_2018-11-28_teens-social-media_1-05-2/
Arain, M., Haque, M., Johal, L., Mather, P., Nel, W., Rais, A., …Sharma, S. (2013). Maturation
of the adolescent brain. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 9, 449-461.
doi:10.2147/NDT.S39776
Astuti, P. (2016). Freedom of Expression through Social Media and the Political Participation of
Young Voters: A Case Study of Elections in Jakarta Indonesia, 45-88.
Chaffey, D. (2020). Our Compilation of Social Media Statistics of Consumer Adoption and
Usage of Social Networking Platforms. Smart Insights. Retrieved from: https://
www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-
research/amp/
Clement, J. (2018). Number of Social Network Users 2017-2025. Statista. Retrieved from:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/
Dan, (2019). Social Media Statistics in the Philippines. Talkwalker. Retrieved from:
https://www.talkwalker.com/blog/social-media-statistics-philippines#
DiRenzo, A. (2016). How Can Social Media Affect your Health? Sysomos. Retrieved from:
https://sysomos.com/2016/10/27/can-social-media-affect-health/
Garcia, M.R. (2016). Hear our voice: Young people in the Philippines want more from their
leaders. World Bank Blogs. Retrieved from https://blogs.worldbank.org/eastasiapacific/what-the-
filipino-youth-want-beyond-the-may-2016-elections
Gracical, G., Viswarim D. (2018). Freedom of Expression in Social Media: A Political
Perspective. RESEARCH REVIEW International Journal of Multidisciplinary, 110-113.
Juszezyk, S. (2015). Fields of Impact of Social Media on Youth – Methodological Implications.
Acta Technolica Dubnicae.
Kemp, S. (2020). Digital 2020: July Global Statshot. Datareprtal. Retrieved from:
https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2020-july-global-statshot
Kennedy, K. (2019). Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media on Adolescent Well – being.
Cornerstone, Minnesota State University Mankato. Retrieved from
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1923&context=etds
Lad, H. (2017). The Positive and Negative Impact of Social Media on “Education Teenagers,
Business and Society”. International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and
Technology vol. 6, Issue 10.

Lalu, G. P. (2020). Filipino Netizen’s Gags Give Harvard’s Facebook Stats A Boost.
Inquiere.Net. Retrieved from https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1327638/harvards-facebook-page-
raided-by-guess-what-filipino-netizens

Mondal, M. et al., (2017). A Measurement Study of Hate Speech in Social Media. HT’
Proceedings of the 28th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media. Retrieved from:
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3078714.3078723/
Njorge, R. (2013). Impacts of Social Media Amon the Youth on Behavior change; A Case Study
of University Students in Selected Universities in Nairobi, Kenya, 1-80.
Oksanen, A. et al., (2014). Exposure to Online Hate among Young Social Media Users. In book:
Soul of Society: A Focus on the Lives of Children & Youth (Sociological Studies of Children
and Youth, Volume 18) (pp. 253-273). Emerald. Retrieved from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266392546_Exposure_to_Online_Hate_among_Young
_Social_Media_Users
Padmasoni, U. R. (2019). Impact of Social Media on Youth. International Journal of Innovative
Technology of Exploring Engineering.
Pascual, B. G. (2019). The Implications of Social Media in the Philippines. Sagisag. Retrieved
from https://www.sagisag.com/article/642/technology/the-implications-of-social-media-in-the-
philippines#:~:text=Santos%20on%20her%20study%20'The,on%20Filipino%20culture%20and
%20behavior.&text=Social%20media%20created%20an%20opportunity,them%20even%20from
%20other%20countries.
Rameez, A. (2015). The Impact of Social Media on Younger Generation: The Use of Facebook
among the Undergraduates of South Eastern University of Sri Lanka. Department of Social
Sciences South Eastern University of Sri Lanka: 5th International Symposium-IntSym 2015,
SEUSL.
Swigger, N (2012). The Online Citizen: Is Social Media Changing Citizens’ Belied About
Democratic Values. The Ohio State University. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257640021_The_Online_Citizen_Is_Social_Media_Ch
anging_Citizens'_Beliefs_About_Democratic_Values
Umar, T. I., Idris, M. (2018). Influence of Social Media on Psychosocial Behaviour and
Academic Performance of Secondary School Students. Zeetarz Publishing.
A. Topic # 2:

Philippines’ Dismal Average in Reading Comprehension in PISA 2018

B. ACCOMPANYING LITERATURE :

 Franza M.J. (2018) in her descriptive statistical analyses revealed that the reading

competence of the students were affected by factors including their economic standing,

motivational success, attitude towards learning and family support which were

statistically at moderate extent. In addition, their reading skill gauged through vocabulary

and comprehension as indicators were both statistically poor but was moderate in terms

of speed and fluency.

 According to Philippine Basic Education in 2015, if a child does not have a strategy we

expect, reading becomes only frustrating, hurting the child's love for reading. We must

develop and not expect these strategies from children. Focusing on strategies that we

think good readers should have may not be an effective way of teaching. It is like

teaching arithmetic while expecting that a child already knows numbers and how to add

and subtract.

 Cando Rutchelle (2018) argued that it is the duty of the teacher to use various

techniques, strategies, programs and Learning Resources so as to make learning more

interesting, effective and enjoyable. For instance, a Reading teacher was able to observe

strategies which turned out to be effective. The conduct of remediation/enhancement

lessons to select pupils and students is observed to be effective in improving the skills of

the learners. Implementation of appropriate innovations/interventions/projects are also

have significant impact to the learners. Another tested effective strategy to most learners

one could use is the involvement of parents and siblings at home in extending assistance

in the reading drills of their children, either on word recognition or comprehension

development sessions.

 Cruz, Lumana (2015) states in her published article that the link between the literacy

deficits and the poverty level seems oversimplified, as affluent families do not
 necessarily nurture proficient readers and learners, as we all know.

One reason offered for the difficulties that reading teachers experience is that students

who come from low-income families have such literacy deficits at age four to begin with,

bearing the liability of having heard 32 million words fewer from their parents than their

peers with professional parents. She further suggested that books used in classrooms need

to be interesting and relevant to the students. Students like books that they are

knowledgeable about. The big challenge is to match the reader to the book, to make the

book not only a tool for instruction but also for motivating. One becomes a good reader

by reading; it is as simple as that.

 A study was conducted by Cabardo (2015) in one of the performing high schools in

Davao City which to determine the reading proficiency level of Year 1-3 students as basis

for reading intervention program. The Philippine-Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI)

materials were used in assessing the level of reading proficiency of Years 1-3 students.

The results revealed that majority of the students belonged to the frustration level of

reading proficiency in silent reading while in instructional level for the oral reading,

majority of males are less proficient in reading compared to females in both silent and

oral reading.

 Bilbao, M., Donguilla, C., & Vasay, M. (2016), contested that comprehension is the

heart of reading for without such it becomes meaningless and that there are four levels of

comprehension: literal, inferential or interpretive, evaluative, and creative. Literal is also

called as factual level. It refers to the readers’ ability to decode words, give meaning in a

context, and determine word relationship. Learners are as well expected to identify

fundamental information and follow basic instructions. Interpretive level, on the other

hand, is higher order thinking as it requires the application and analysis process. Readers

are expected to look into the relationships among statements in the given text, understand

the implications of the reading segment through inferencing as well as determine implicit

or explicit ideas contained in the reading material. Meanwhile in the evaluative or critical

level requires the readers to render "their" judgments of the reading material which, in

turn, make them evaluate the texts being read. Finally, the creative level. This is regarded
 as transcendental reading as it compels the readers to go beyond the intention of the

writer such as applying gained insights to a new situation and merging the author’s ideas

to generate new thoughts, ideas, and concepts.

C. REASONS FOR SELECTING THE TOPIC

Most of us resides on higher expectations being set forth once you are a 21 st century

learner. It’s always a must to acquire good communication, critical thinking skills and the

like qualities in order to not be left behind in the trend. Ideally, producing students who

can think critically and connect ideas is the vanguard goal of every educational system.

We always aspire to shape students who can be a big asset of the nation in moving

forward and can participate on societal matters. But, are we really molding one?

A. STATISTICAL FINDINGS

During the final quarter of 2018, an uproar put the Philippines in the dump of

dismay when the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),

released the result of the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment

(PISA), Where it revealed that the Philippines ranked dead last(79th) in reading

comprehension with a score of 340, and placed second to the last(78th) in both

Mathematics and Science having a score of 353 and 357, respectively.

What’s more alarming than this placement is the fact that the Philippines’ scored

below the OECD average which is at 487 in reading comprehension and 489 for both

Mathematics and Science. The results indicate that the Philippines are at dismal

average among the 79 participating countries.

The PISA is an international study that was launched by the OECD in 1977, first

administered in 2000 and now covers over 80 countries. It is a triennial international

assessment conducted every 3 years aimed on providing comparative data on 15-year-

olds’ performance in reading, mathematics and science (OECG.org).

 For 2018, Reading literacy was assessed as major domain, and Mathematical

literacy and Scientific literacy of the students were assessed as minor domains.

Global competence was also included as an innovative assessment.

Meanwhile, before the PISA 2018 conducted, Nasibog E.G., and Telan R. (2017)

conducted a study in Darong Elementary School that focus on the reading rate,

reading comprehension and the relationship between oral reading rate and silent

reading rate. And it was found out that in reading rate, silent reading got a high mean

of 55.33 while oral reading got 50.11, which is less than the average score of silent

reading.

Table 1. Descriptive Statistics for Oral and Silent Reading Rates of Passage in

English

Language Indicator Mean Standard Deviation

English Oral Reading Rate 50.11 13.36
Silent Reading Rate 55.33 10.06

In reading comprehension, oral reading got a 11.91 while silent reading got a 12.

64 which means that in reading comprehension silent reading got a high average.

Table 2. Descriptive statistics for reading comprehension for oral and silent

passage in English

Language Indicator Mean Standard Deviation

English Oral Reading Comprehension 11.91 5.31
Silent Reading Comprehension 12.64 6.59

Thus the result shows that the third grade in Darong Elementary School got a high

average both in reading rate and reading comprehension when they are tested in silent

reading.
 B. RESEARCH GAP

In many years of improving the quality of education, many researchers mainly

focused on how to facilitate student learning process. The interest of other researches

was on reading fluency of students as one of the key to be good reader and a

requirement for a very good reading comprehension. But as time goes by, it is vividly

obvious that reading fluency isn’t just only the measurement of student’s literacy.

Hence, we observed that there are contributing factors hidden that come into play

in the disheartening performance of Philippines in PISA 2018. Does the current

curriculum of the country mistakenly equate quantity and quality learning? To whom

we should put the blame? Is it the educational system, parents, teachers or students?

Based on the researchers’ initial review of accompanying literature, it was found out

that no study has been conducted on this topic.

REFERENCES:

Bilbao, M., Donguilla, C., & Vasay, M. (2016). Level of reading comprehension of the education

students. International Journal of Liberal Arts, Education, Social Sciences and

Philosophical Studies, 4(1), 342-353. Retrieved from http://ejournals.ph/form/cite.php?

id=13762

Cabardo, J. R. (2015). Reading Proficiency Level of Students: Basis for Reading Intervention

Program. SSRN Electronic Journal. Doi:10.2139/sSSRN2712237

Cando, R. (2018). The Importance of Reading Comprehension. Sunstar Pampanga. Retrieved

September 03, 2020, from https://www.pressreader.com/philippines/sunstar-

pampanga/20181027/281732680476522

Franza, M. (2018). Personal attributes and reading competence of grade nine students. “Tin-aw"

Graduate School Book of Abstracts,2(1), 1-9. Retrieved from http://ejournals.ph/form/cite.php?

id=13626
Paris, J. (2019). Philippines ranks among lowest in reading, math, and science in 2018 study.

Rappler. Retrieved September 02, 2020, from https://rappler.com/nation/philippines-ranking-

reading-math-science-pisa-study-2018.

Philippine Basic Education, (2015). The Problem with Reading. Retrieved September 4, 2020,

from https://www.philippinesbasiceducation.us/2015/02/the-problem-with-reading.html

A. TOPIC # 3:

Bangko Sentral Launches New Philippines Peso Banknotes Design

B. ACCOMPANYING LITERATURE:

 Central Banks are faced with the series if variables in the process of

decision – making, formulating and implementing monetary policy. This

series of variables range from the ultimate target of policy focusing on the

citizens across the country. In the Philippine setting, the traditional

framework of anchoring on monetary aggregates and thereby effectively

using the interest rates and importantly the power of the government

decision. The Central Bank of the Philippines pursues many responsible

finance initiatives. It has established a framework for consumer protection,

enhanced implementation of the Truth in Lending Act, adopted market

conduct regulation and set up a Financial consumer Affairs Group

(FCAG) as part of the bank, Responsible Finance Forum (2020).

 Banknotes of the Philippine peso are issued by the Bangko Sentral ng

Pilipinas (Central Bank of the Philippines) for circulation in the

Philippines. The smallest amount of legal tender in wide circulation is 20

php and the largest is 1000 php. The font side of each banknote features

prominent people along with buildings and events in the country’s history
 while the reverse side depicts landmarks and animals. “As a matter of

practice, central banks regularly change the designs of their money to

guard against counterfeiters”, stated in the primer prepared by the Bangko

Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on the New Generation Currency Program. Last

year, the central bank of the Philippines released the new banknote designs

for the 20 php, 50 php, 100 php, 200 php, 500 php and 1000 php

denominations. Made from 80% cotton and 20% abaca locally produced.

These new bills contain more vivid colors, improved security features and

the theme highlighting Filipino world heritage sites and natural wonders

such as the Banawe Rice Terraces, the Chocolate Hills and the Tubbataha

Reef. (Asia Society, 2020).

 According to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (2019), as a matter of practice,

central banks regularly change the designs of their money whether coins

or banknotes to guard against counterfeiters. By making it very difficult

and costly for counterfeiters to produce exact copies of the money, they

protect the integrity against of currency against criminals. While other

central banks redesign their banknotes every 10 years on average while the

Philippines present currency series has been in place for about 25 years

now. “Essentially these design enhancements in the currency will further

promote the ease of the recognition by the public and at the same time

maintaining the highly secure and durable characteristics of coins and

banknotes in the New Generation Currency”, BSP Senior Assistant

Governor Dahlia Luna said.

 On July 29, 2020, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has released the New

Generation Currency (NGC) banknotes that feature a “shining,

shimmering” value panel but seems like a lot of people missed the memo.

The new release NGC was enhanced to benefit the elderly and visually
 impaired. The refined bill boasts of a Window Security Thread that

incorporates anti – counterfeiting technology and the country’s rich

culture through indigenous weaves from various regions of the country.

According to BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno, “To further promote

inclusivity and integrity in our currency, the BSP also took an opportunity

to further improve our banknotes as part of global best practices and at the

same time, improve on its design and security features. Manila Bulletin

(2020).

 According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, original New Generation

Currency banknotes shall co – exist with the enhanced ones and will

continue to be legal tender. The enhanced NGC Banknote Series include

an “optical variable ink” across printed values on 500 php and 1000 php

bills. The ink changes color and would make higher denominations more

difficult to counterfeit. Additional tactile marks in the form of intaglio –

presented pairs of short horizontal lines will also be found in the new bills.

The feature is meant to assist the elderly and the visually – impaired to

easily distinguish banknotes from one another (2020).

C. REASONS SELECTING TOPICS

A. STATISTICAL FINDINGS
 POINT OF VIEW

1.4; 9%
2.2; 15%
AGREED

8.2; 55% DISAGREED

NEUTRAL
3.2; 21%
IGNORED

The researchers conducted a time study on respondents from the different

age groups while identifying the values of currency. Based on the study,

the respondents rely on their visual sense more than their other senses

when recognizing the enhanced Philippines peso banknotes design. The

researchers used a question and answer method via online to the 15

respondents answering if they agree or not to the new Philippine

banknotes design to know the pros and cons of the enhanced new

Philippines peso banknote design. The result shows as follows;

 Therefore, out of 100%, there were 55% who agreed on the new enhanced Philippine banknote

design to help the elders and visually impaired or the atypical persons, while there were 22%

who disagreed for them the new design of peso bills looks like fake, 14% answered that the new

enhanced peso bill both has advantage and disadvantage to everyone and lastly there were 9%

who ignored and remains not to answer the questions.

B. RESEARCH GAP

The above reviewed academic research in form of the government

regulations, banking, research articles, newspaper articles, organizational

initiatives and magazines in the area of financial literacy reveal that the are

of financial literacy specifically about the banknotes and coins series

designing is relatively new and multi – dimensional and therefore the

literatures available for the review are limited hard to find comparatives

and target must be specific.

The review of available literature also reveals that the New

Generation Currency will remains at the decision and hand of the power of

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas with the cooperation of the government

regulations.

References:

https://responsiblefinanceforum.org/map-case-study/philippines/

http://www.bsp.gov.ph/bspnotes/comm_coins.asp

https://asiasociety.org/philippines/new-generation-philippine-peso-bills