PILI, Camarines Sur: This town’s parish will mark this week its bicentennial year with the launch of a commemorative stamp. The stamp, designed by award-winning poet and book designer Vic Nierva, depicts the façade of the St. Raphael The Archangel Church with Mount Isarog looming in the background. “The parish church, which has been here for so long, has been a tangible symbol of faith among the people of Pili,” Nierva said. Built in 1819, the church shows a mixture of Moorish and Baroque architecture. According to Nierva, the stamp will come in two versions — an official first-day cover and a setenant, a philatelic term that means a pair of unseparated stamps with different face values and, sometimes, design. Fr. Wilmer Tria, the parish priest, said the stamp, which will be issued in coordination with the Philippine Postal Corp., is “a historical document of the town of Pili, a way of celebrating the parish as a community of faith and part of the Bicol Region.” The town, believed to have been named after the pili tree (Canarrum Ovatum) and the Bikol word for “choice,” was officially designated a town in 1919 and as the capital of the province of Camarines Sur in 1955.
