From waste to wonder: BSP office exemplifies government frugality through upcycled Christmas trees

The first Christmas was a lesson in governance and modesty. A King was born in a manger turned into a birth clinic. It was also a lesson in financial stewardship, sustainability and resource management, where from “waste to wealth,” disposables from animal stocks to haystack were recycled, upcycled, repurposed and transformed to create new use and value fit for sovereigns, the “King of Kings” and the Three Kings. Waste was turned that night into the wonder of Christmas.

Returning to that original spirit of the season was the inspiration behind the three Christmas trees handcrafted from cornhusks, house items, office garbage, egg trays and other disposables and surplusages by about 50 personnel of the Provident Fund Office (PFO) of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

“Christmas has been associated with spending, and sometimes with inappropriate government spending, so the BSP-PFO Operations Group thought of launching a Christmas-tree making contest made out of whatever we already have at our disposal to exemplify government frugality,” said events organizer Charis Elaine Zaide. “We want to show that at minimal to no cost, whether in the government or the private sector, we can still decorate our offices with Christmas motifs and celebrate at minimal to no cost. This, after all, is the original meaning of Christmas.”

Instead of the usual exchange gifts with officemates, BSP-PFO came up with sharing goods and charity work with chosen communities, as well as commitments of acts of kindness to their loved ones as meaningful self-giving this Christmas. The office, composed of accountants, lawyers, financial analysts, economists and office administrators, tapped into their creative side to rework non-essentials and trash into works of art in three weeks’ time. Even prior to the Christmas celebration, BSP-PFO has observed government frugality, personal philanthropy and community building with orphans, pregnant women in crisis, elderly and persons with disabilities.

The first tree created by a team under PFO director Atty. Flordeliz Elizaga and deputy director Katherine Suarez called “Puno ng Biyaya” garnered the highest points and popular choice votes for creative sustainability.

“At its foundation are displays of faith, shown through a nativity scene handcrafted from cornhusks, tree barks and sheets, brown paper bags and used chopsticks, with Jesus at the center as the true light of Christmas,” said Elmer Ignacio, a PFO Operations bank officer.

“There are also figures showing a sense of Community through scenes of bayanihan and a BSP-building diorama made from used cardboard and re-purposed toys, where even the smallest details reflect how ordinary materials can be transformed with patience, intention and care,” he said. “Then friendship and family where love begins and grows.”

The second tree is a winter-white “Pre-Loved Tree of Life” under the team of this author and deputy director Ferdinand Mariscotes of the Financial Services Group, which focused on do-it-yourself, easily available pre-loved items or trash from home or office turned into an animated, mobile, circular tree generating lights and sounds. Loans and credit officers Rein Rivera and Angie Aldana conceived the general structure of a multi-layered display tree that revolves cyclically while placed on a rotating display board, with the circular shapes symbolizing recyclability.

The foundation of the tree is a car tire, with a topmost parol crafted from water bottles shaped like a cross by Henry Tabungar, a real estate appraiser. Tabungar also created the laser lights and sounds run by a used chargeable car battery. Visitors could also gaze upon the tree’s built-in miniature white screen flashing a Nativity movie, which plays from a defunct mobile phone placed inside a shoebox with a magnifying glass originally designed by PFO’s Franz Hernandez and Emmanuel Littaua.

“The tree has five layers of displays cut from cardboards, each with a life cycle theme to evoke memories of childhood, major happy life phases and a few of their (people’s) favorite things,” explained Loans Processing manager Jaime Tongol.

The first layer is themed “School,” showcasing used supplies of investment analysts Louie Joe Cordova and Angeli Delos Reyes, then a layer for “Family and Community” out of colored popsicle sticks, walis tambo, chicken feather, egg stuff, colored weaves of cloths built into a little neighborhood and Holy Family by managerial officers Corazon Acosta and Dina Amante and PFO’s Roberto Togonon.

A layer on “Travel and Tourism” has a childhood train toy with the message “Happy Birthday Jesus” on the carriages propelling around a white forest on which hangs letters of children for Christmas, rendered by senior bank officers Sharyln Cortez, Ida De Leon and their children.

The fourth layer is “Entertainment,” composed of glassed decors from old CDs, snowman out of drinking cans, origami of snack wrappers and snowflakes from table cloth, dotted and dyed with blue paint by office administrator Ruth Tongko, accounting specialist Ellen Berboso and data encoders Lorraine Caballas and Erika Amper.

Finally, there was the inclusive Christmas tree from the diverse 19 families under the team of deputy director Sol Elizah Roxas of the Investment Management Group of group three.

“The families came from young and seasoned households, extended families, single-parent homes, families with fur babies and those with children with special needs, united by the all-embracing love of Jesus Christ,” Roxas explained the inspiration behind their tree. “So for the ornaments, we hung 19 family photos framed in cardboard boxes accented with pistachio shells, alongside sparkling decorations made from soft drink bottles.”

This tree made use of vibrant eco-bags transformed into a colorful Pampanga parol and garlands; and a Nativity scene formed from newspapers. The lush green foliage was created from hand-painted egg trays in varying shades of green. At the base, a garland of ipil-ipil leaves serves as the foundation, highlighted by silver papier-mâché balls and shimmering soft drink bottoms for extra sparkle.

While it was the first time that BSP PFO officers created a Christmas tree out of recyclables, “the successful Christmas party display of creative curiosities and original tree building executed in a short time frame displays the dynamism, capability and passion of PFO officers as a multi-talented pool, while dedicated to their regular government functions,” recapped Atty. Elmore Capule, deputy governor of BSP’s Corporate Services Sector during the Christmas trees presentation at the PFO Office in BSP Manila last 12 December.

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Atty. Nicolo F. Bernardo, JD, MA, LLM is the Deputy Director of the BSP Provident Fund Office Operations Group.