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Eurogiro News 5
Philippine Post celebrates over two centuries
of providing postal services to the Philippines
An historic event was held on 9 November 2012 to celebrate the contributions of the Philippine
Post Kateros (Mailmen) in helping serve the needs of Filipinos around the globe. Eurogiro was
invited as a keynote speaker
On 9 November, 2012, the Philippine Postal
Corporation celebrated the 229th anni-
versary of the establishment of the Post
in Grand style - Grand Kartero Style, that
is. PhilPost, for the first time in the history
of the Philippine Post, held a celebratory
tribute to the contributions of the Philippine
Karteros (Postal carriers) who never fail to
deliver thousands of letters and parcels to
Filipino families, rain or shine.
The Grand Kartero Day (GKD) is PHLPost’s
way of saluting their front-liners for their
dedication and commitment to service.
“GKD hopes to empower our Letter Carri-
ers by making them feel that they are the
most important workforce of PHLPost. The
day-long activity of fun, treats, entertain-
ment and prizes attended by nearly 2,000
is our way of saying, "thank you" to our
beloved Karteros” said Mr. Antonio (Bong)
C. Sablan, Jr., Communications Chief of
PHLPost.
The historic gathering took place at the
Rizal Memorial Coliseum in the “Old Manila”
section of the Philippines and was attended
by nearly 3,000 Postal employees, including
the Postal Board of Directors, Senior
Government officials including all of the
senior Postal Service Managers and, of
course, Karteros throughout the Philippines.
In recognition of the role that Eurogiro has
played in helping PhilPost provide payment
services to overseas Filipinos, Gene Gutier-
rez, Director of Customer Relations Asia Pa-
cific region, was invited as a special guest,
a keynote speaker and a talent judge at
the day-long event. In his keynote address,
Gene Gutierrez congratulated PhilPost on
providing critical services to Filipino citizens
for over two centuries and for the continued
advocacy of PhilPost to add as many rele-
vant Eurogiro members into their interna-
tional payments offering to its customers as
possible. He reinforced Eurogiro’s pledge to
work closely with Postmaster General Josie
Dela Cruz to help expand the PhilPost ser-
vices to all the major countries in the world
through our Eurogiro member network.
PhilPost Postmaster General, Josie Dela
Cruz, also acknowledged the valuable
relationship between Eurogiro and Phil-
Post. “PHLPost continues its mission to
help overseas Filipino workers and Filipino
immigrants around the world send money
back home to the Philippines conveniently,
safely and cheaply. Through our Eurogiro
membership, we have joined forces with
Eurogiro members in Brazil, Greece, Italy,
Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Switzerland and
Thailand, with Saudi Arabia and Spain to be
added soon, so Filipinos can send money
easily and conveniently back to their friends
and loved ones living throughout the
Philippines.”
200 years of history
According to official PhilPost records, the
Philippine postal system has a history span-
ning over 200 years. In 1767, the first post
office was established in the city of Manila,
which was later organised under a new
postal district of Spain, encompassing Ma-
nila and the entire Philippine archipelago, in
1779. The postal district was re-established
on December 5, 1837. A year later, Manila
became known as a leading centre of
postal services within Asia. Spain joined
the Universal Postal Union in 1875, which
was announced in the Philippines two
years later.
During the Philippine Revolution, President
Emilio Aguinaldo ordered the establishment
of a postal service to provide postal services
to Filipinos during that time. On September
5, 1902, by virtue of Act No. 426, which was
passed by the Philippine Commission, it
was organised as a bureau under today’s
Department of Trade and Industry, then
known as the Department of Trade. The
Philippines eventually, on January 1, 1922,
joined the Universal Postal Union, this time
as a sovereign entity.
With the overhaul of the Philippine bureau-
cracy in 1987, on April 13, 1987 the Bureau
of Posts was renamed the Postal Service
Office (PSO) by the then President, Corazon
Aquino. Finally, on April 2, 1992, the PSO
became the present-day PhilPost. Two years
later, the new Philippine Postal Savings Bank
was also opened for business.
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Postmaster General Josie Dela Cruz opening the celebration event of the Philippine Post Mailmen