Rizal banked with now 140-year-old institution

MANILA, Philippines - At the turn of the 19th century, national hero Dr. Jose Rizal, then taking up higher studies in Europe, proved to be just as concerned about the exchange rate, like many overseas Filipinos today.

After all, as a student, the young Rizal was still getting his allowance from his parents back home. A few dollars saved here and there would certainly go a long way until the next round of financial succor.

In the book called “One Hundred Letters of Jose Rizal to his Parents, Brothers, Sisters, Relatives” found today in the Lopez Memorial Museum and Foundation, it is said that Rizal wrote his parents and explicitly advised them: 

(Paris, January 1, 1886 - Boulevard Arago 65)

“I received a draft of $200 which when collected in francs gave me only 192, so 4% is lost. With more reason I repeat to you now what I have told. If you are to send me money do it by the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China which is very much better.”

The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China merged with the Standard Bank of British South Africa in 1969 to become Standard Chartered.

The bank that Rizal found worthy enough to endorse at the time is now marking its 140th year of service to the country.

If Rizal were alive today, it is not far-fetched to imagine that the national hero would still have good words for the bank.

Not only has Standard Chartered stayed in the country through good times and bad times, or through countless revolutions and political upheavals. Standard Chartered is also giving to the Philippines this year, to commemorate its 140th anniversary, a $1-million pledge to help eliminate curable or preventable blindness in the country.

An ophthalmologist by profession, Rizal would have been happy with the bank’s anniversary gift.

Through “Seeing is Believing,” the bank’s global initiative to tackle preventable blindness, the donation will be used for a nationwide project that will focus on the treatment of cataract, refractive error and childhood blindness. The project will be undertaken over three years in partnership with local beneficiary, CBM/Cataract Foundation of the Philippines Inc. (CFPI).

Almost 450,000 Filipinos are blind today and, of this number, 90,000 are children.

However, 80 percent of blindness is avoidable, meaning preventable or curable. This is where Standard Chartered would like to make a difference.

In a Gala Night held at The Peninsula Manila recently, Group executive director and CEO for Asia Jaspal Bindra said, “This milestone occasion serves to express our gratitude to the country and the Filipino people, including our partners, clients, customers and staff, for being a big part of our 140-year journey here in the Philippines. Through our $1-million ‘Seeing is Believing’ pledge to help eliminate avoidable blindness in the Philippines, we hope to recommit ourselves to be here for people, here for progress, here for the long run, here for good.”

Meanwhile, Philippines CEO Mahendra Gursahani said, “Standard Chartered Bank is extremely proud of its unbroken record of 140 years of service in the Philippines. It certainly speaks of our unwavering commitment to partner with the country and, traditionally, that has been our position in all the countries we’re in. Even through civil wars, world wars or other kinds of social unrest or upheavals in some nations, we continue to service our banking clients. We don’t get scared easily and we remain true to our commitment to service. This is the essence of our brand promise to be here for good.”

The bank’s foremost client, Rizal, would have been appreciative. Rizal, after all, was a physician who trained in ophthalmology under two prominent European ophthalmologists of that era, Louis de Wecker and Otto Becker. 

Rizal was said to have been inspired to study ophthalmology because of his mother’s failing eyesight and his desire to help her. He practiced ophthalmology mainly in Calamba, Hong Kong and while in exile in the town of Dapitan. His specialized skills brought him renown, and patients often traveled long distances to seek his care. 

His mother’s ailment was cataract and it is reported that in 1892, Rizal successfully removed the cataract from his mother’s left eye. Several months later, he sent her glasses with instructions to cover the right lens until he could operate on that eye, and two years later, in Dapitan, he extracted the right cataract.

More than a century hence, the donation from Rizal’s favorite bank is coming in to benefit thousands, hopefully, of his visually impaired countrymen.

The anniversary gift will give many needy cataract patients a chance at avoiding blindness.

Add to these numbers those whose eyesight could be saved by merely treating refractive error. It is a gift to the Filipino people our national hero would have greatly approved, because not everyone is fortunate to have an ophthalmologist like him in the family.