Category Archives: Articles

The new Jose Rizal bill?

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jose rizal 150 baybayin.com

An interesting article came out 1/20/11 on the Malaya Business Insight website about a proposed P150 Jose Rizal bill to celebrate his 150th birthday.

There is a proposal submitted to the Governor of the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas for a 150-peso bill carrying the portrait of Jose Rizal as the central feature in the front portion. The intent is to promote the 150th birth anniversary of the Philippine national hero.

The photo above has some interesting elements like the Angono Petroglyphs featuring the theory of Baybayin numerals. Also featured is the Taklobo and “Republika ng Pilipinas” in modified/modern Baybayin. What do you think?

Baybayin Barong & Una Fight Gear

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2 new clothing pieces from the team that brought you the Baybayin Buhayin iPhone app.

Baybayin Barong design will be available at SoulShop at Crossroad 77 in Quezon City, Philippines

Una Fight Gear – Filipino Martial Arts clothing

UNA Baybayin Tee in Black and White.

Call/SMS or contact via email or Facebook to order

0917.5771234
0915.9710063

UNA.fightgear@gmail.com

Alibata still rules

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I ran a query on Google search traffic trends for Alibata vs Baybayin over the last 5 years. As you can see, Alibata (red) is searched more than double Baybayin (blue).

Notes:
– What’s interesting is that the term Baybayin only started trending late 2007 around the same time Baybayin.com was launched.

– The peaks are around the month of June/July. I suspect that the increase is due to Filams searching for Alibata tattoos in the summer. These trends follow summer traffic patters on my Filipino Tattoo site.

– Around 2008-2009, there was a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) contest in the Philippines that used Alibata as their keyword. Basically, whoever could get their website at the top of the search engines when typing the keyword  won the prize. This caused a lot of crap sites that are still out there. All of them were just copies of Wikipedia.

– I think within the next 2 years, we should see the Alibata vs Baybayin gap lessen.

Here’s a December 2010 graph. See how close it is at the end of the year? It could be because of the new Philippine bank notes that were released with Baybayin and reported by the news as Baybayin (bravo).

Baybayin standards defined by practitioners – Baybayin.org

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My domain Baybayin.org currently points to the Baybayin Facebook page, the biggest Baybayin online community with over 4,000 members. I want to develop Baybayin.org is a place to discuss script standards as defined by actual writers. In order for this to succeed, we will need a mixture of enthusiasts, artists, scholars, etc. Coming up with these standars would include case presentation, justification and defense. I assume this will need to be a democratic system.

The goal would be to brainstorm, discuss, document and define standards for all things Baybayin. Some deliverable examples could be a base character set, character order, kudlits, modern characters, etc. I do not think we should set goals on script names at this time. The focus should be on items that solve the problems that deliver actual value now.

I’m also looking for the community to share documents and other resources in order to provide historical context.

Please provide me with your feedback and if your interested in helping out

GMA 7: Pintados Remake

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A new show from the Philippine network GMA 7 uses Baybayin in the opening credits to promote Pintados. What’s interesting is what character set they used. I would’ve expected them to use fonts from Paul Morrow. This looks like it’s in a style made popular by Bayani Mendoza de Leon. The Baybayin reads Pi-N-Ta-Do-S.

Couple notes:
1) The kudlit style appears to be pattered after Bayani’s “The Ancient Script of the Philippines” manual. Instead of + kudlits, a hash at the bottom right of the character represented the vowel cancellation.
2) The 2nd character Na is in a style I haven’t seen before in any old samples or new modern styles by artists.

Here’s an overview of the show:

After several rich Filipino families become victims of terrible crimes, they agree to set up and fund a foundation to battle the criminals. Under the command of “Guro”, an unsanctioned agency of the government sets up a clandestine crime fighting unit. Each of the members is themself a victim of hideous crimes. This elite unit taken from all walks of life take a leaf from Filipino warriors of old, and cloak themselves in armour, ethnic war paint and tattoos, gaining the name “The Pintados” (Painted Ones). Opposing Pintados is the army of the human/reptile hybrid Katana.

Way of the Ancient Healer

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Way of the Ancient Healer – Sacred Teachings from the Philippine Ancestral Traditions by Virgil Mayor Apostol was just released and has a section on Baybayin. He covers the script in the”Inheritance and Documentation of Knowledge” section of Chapter 1. What’s interesting is that Virgil covers how early Baybayin was probably also used to “Record, formulate of magical and religious significance”. Check it out